New York Landmarks Conservancyhttp://www.nylandmarks.org
Copyright 20152015-07-30T13:31:20+00:00City Council Legislation Will Set Time Limits on Landmark Designationshttp://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/preservation_issues/proposed_legislation_by_city_council_will_set_time_limits_on_landmark_desig/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/preservation_issues/proposed_legislation_by_city_council_will_set_time_limits_on_landmark_desig/
July 2015
The City Council has introduced a bill that would set time limits for the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to designate individual landmarks and historic districts and prevent the Commission from acting on buildings for five years if the deadlines were missed.
Co-sponsors, Councilmember David Greenfield, Chair of the Land Use Committee and Councilmember Peter Koo, Chair of the Landmarks Subcommittee, invited the Conservancy and preservation colleagues for a briefing on the bill, Intro.775, which will have a hearing in September. The Councilmembers said the bill offered simplicity and predictability and that most designations in recent years fell within the proposed timeframes.
We appreciate the outreach from the Councilmembers and agree that steps should be taken to provide a designation timeline, but we are concerned that the bill would remove flexibility that is necessary to the process and could endanger potential landmarks. Intro. 775 would set one year to hear and vote on individual buildings (180 days for a public hearing and 180 days to vote) and two years (one year each to hear and vote) for districts. If the vote was not taken by deadline, the designation could not be reconsidered for five years. The bill would also require that the LPC vote on any sites already on the calendar within 18 months of the date that the bill becomes a law or they too would be barred from reconsideration for five years.
The Conservancy believes that these strict guidelines would force the LPC to disregard real-world events, such as new ownership, or a change of Councilmember. The five-year recess would give ample time for significant alterations, additions, loss of historic fabric, or demolition. We are also concerned that these rigid timelines would prevent the LPC from setting its own priorities and allocating its own resources. Our colleagues at the Historic Districts Council have provided research showing that the designation of nearly one-half of all historic districts would not have met these deadlines and that dozens of neighborhoods would be unprotected had this law been in place.
Earlier this year, the Conservancy worked with Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and preservation advocates to develop timelines that would be more appropriate and give LPC the flexibility it needs: a requirement to hold a hearing within five years, followed by a six-month period to vote, and the option of a three-year extension. This timeframe would create transparency and certainty, but allow the LPC to adjust for the unexpected, without placing historic buildings and communities at risk.
The LPC itself has taken steps to address timeline issues. The agency has long recognized that leaving buildings on its calendar for unspecified lengths of time is not good policy. Prior Commissions have acted to address the “calendared but not heard” list. After stepping back from plans for a wide-scale decalendaring, Chair Meenakshi Srinivasan has worked with the preservation community to develop a strong proactive approach to resolve the backlog. (It should be noted that the backlog itself represents only a tiny percentage of thousands of buildings the agency has designated). The Chair has also set a standard to provide the date for a public hearing when a site is placed on the calendar and a date for the designation vote at the hearing. Combined, these policies should clear the backlog and ensure that new designations are completed within a reasonable time frame. And the guidelines proposed by the Borough President would provide a failsafe to prevent the backlog from building up again.
Councilmember Greenfield asked for input. We hope that the Council will seriously consider the concerns that will be voiced at the hearing and will keep you informed as the hearing date for Intro. 775 approaches.
2015-07-30T13:31:20+00:002015-07-30T13:31:20+00:00Seaport Coalition Discusses Issues with Deputy Mayorhttp://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/preservation_issues/conservancy_opposes_making_seaport_museum_dependent_on_howard_hughes/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/preservation_issues/conservancy_opposes_making_seaport_museum_dependent_on_howard_hughes/
UPDATE: July 29, 2015
The Conservancy, along with colleague organizations, met with Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen to discuss the future of the South Street Seaport. The groups are concerned that the large-scale plans of the developer Howard Hughes Corporation will not serve the Seaport or the City well. Representatives of the City Club of New York, Two Bridges Neighborhood Council, and Waterfront Alliance all spoke of the need for a plan that respects the character of the Historic District, South Street Seaport Museum, and the waterfront.
Howard Hughes is rebuilding the shopping mall at Pier 17 and has indicated that it has plans for the entire Seaport, but has not presented a comprehensive and detailed proposal to the public. In May, the coalition, which includes Friends of South Street Seaport, Historic Districts Council, Manhattan Community Board 1, and Save Our Seaport, wrote to Mayor de Blasio, requesting clarification on the status of leases and obligations between the City and Howard Hughes, a need for greater public review, and support for the Seaport Museum.
The Deputy Mayor noted that she had inherited the Howard Hughes plans from the prior administration but that, as a life-long New Yorker, she understood how important the Seaport is to the City. She also said City Cultural Affairs officials have been working with the Seaport Museum and had offered specific funding for Museum projects, including the restoration of The Wavertree, one of the Museum’s ships.
At the site, the City’s Economic Development Corporation has begun plans to dismantle sections of the historic Tin Building and New Market Building; the agency has stated that this is due to structural failures at the pier, but advocates are concerned that these steps will lead to further demolition at the New Market which is within the historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but not within the City’ district, and therefore not under the purview of the Landmarks Commission. In light of these threats, the National Trust for Historic Preservation included the Seaport as one of its Eleven Most Endangered Sites.
Despite its significant role in New York’s history, the blocks of 19th buildings, and the waterfront, the Seaport has never received appropriate support from the City. Instead, successive administrations have imported developers to oversee this distinct and picturesque district. The buildings, historic ships, and the singular Museum could be a lure for New Yorkers and tourists if the Seaport was given room to thrive. The Conservancy and its colleagues are pleased to have opened a dialogue with the appropriate City offices to suggest other approaches and encourage them to rethink plans for the Seaport.
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June 26, 2015
South Street Seaport, One of America’s Most Endangered Sites
The South Street Seaport Historic District is one of “America’s Eleven Most Endangered Places” according to The National Trust for Historic Preservation. The dubious honor was announced by the Trust on June 24.
Describing the Seaport as” the largest concentration of restored 19th century commercial buildings in New York,” the Trust said current development plans would “disrupt the look, feel and low scale character” of the district.
“The listing underscores the local concerns that the Seaport is being overshadowed by a shopping mall and a potential luxury tower,” said Conservancy President Peg Breen. (see The New York Times story)
The Conservancy is part of a coalition of groups concerned about development proposals by The Howard Hughes Corporation, which has leased a major part of the seaport from the City.
The coalition believes that the City is failing to recognize and protect the historic character of the seaport. The City has relied on developer promises in the past that failed to provide promised improvements in the area or support for the Seaport Museum, which connects the area directly to its past.
Borough President Gale Brewer and Councilmember Margaret Chin have also expressed concerns with the proposals, especially initial plans for a 50-story condominium tower adjacent to the historic district. The Howard Hughes Corporation now says they are looking at a significantly lower building.
The coalition wrote Mayor de Blasio last month saying, among other issues, that there is little transparency and public review of the Seaport plans and asking for a full explanation of where the proposals stand. (see coalition letter).
The coalition includes the City Club of New York, Friends of South Street Seaport, Historic Districts Council, Manhattan Community Board 1, Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, Save our Seaport and Two Bridges Neighborhood Council.
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May 20, 2015
Coalition Asks Mayor to Halt Development at Seaport and Discuss its Future
A coalition of advocates has asked Mayor Bill de Blasio to halt a developer’s activities at the South Street Seaport and offer a complete explanation of where things stand at the historic site. The request came in a letter to de Blasio that outlined questions over transparency, public review, and the future of the South Street Seaport Museum, the heart of the historic district.
The City Club of New York, Friends of South Street Seaport, Historic Districts Council, Manhattan Community Board 1, Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, Save Our Seaport, Two Bridges Neighborhood Council, and a special Task Force of Landmarks Conservancy Board members met with representatives of Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer earlier this month to discuss the status of the Seaport. Following the meeting, the group authored the letter and requested an opportunity to sit down with key members of the administration.
The Howard Hughes Corporation (HHC) is redeveloping the Pier 17 shopping mall site and has a large-scale plan for the entire district. It has presented piecemeal components of the plan in public, but the full scope in all its complexity, and the extent of the City’s legal agreements with Howard Hughes have never been clear. The advocates requested that the City reveal HHC’s entire plan, and give a transparent accounting of all ownership and leases on the Seaport’s buildings and sites. We also requested that the administration explain the rationale for keeping the South Street Seaport Museum dependent on developer revenues, instead of providing the funding typical at other cultural institutions.
The City, for decades, has failed to recognize the Seaport as an asset, turning to developers to manage a unique area containing early 19th-century buildings. The advocates do not believe that the HHC proposal will serve the Seaport or the City well, as this developer has not adequately demonstrated the capacity, experience or desire to create a sustainable plan linking the interests of preservation to the economic vitality of the area.
The unique character of the historic buildings and the Museum itself are a natural magnet to attract New Yorkers and tourists to the Seaport. They should be supported. We are concerned that plans for a skyscraper in the heart of the District will irreparably compromise its integrity. And the City needs to recognize that the Museum, the last link to the New York’s commercial maritime history, should be the thriving center of a revitalized Seaport District.
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February 2015
Free the Seaport Museum from Depending on Developers
The Landmarks Conservancy opposes the current proposal to make the Seaport Museum dependent on revenue from the controversial Howard Hughes Corporation’s plan for a large residential tower on the East River, just north of the South Street Seaport Historic District.
In a February 19 letter to Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, the Conservancy said: “We believe connecting the future of the Museum to yet another developer is priming it for failure.”
Instead, the Conservancy urged the City to free the Museum from its contract with the Economic Development Corporation and offer annual operating funding, as the City does to other museums in City-owned buildings. The Museum, the landmark buildings it occupies, and its ships, are the only authentic link to the Seaport’s storied past. The Conservancy believes they are essential to the area’s future viability.
The City, for decades, has failed to recognize the Seaport as an asset, turning to developers to manage a unique area containing early 19th-century buildings. The Rouse Corporation, which opened a shopping mall at the Seaport in 1983, failed to deliver on promises similar to those Howard Hughes is making today.
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, City Councilmember Margaret Chin, Community Board 1 and numerous groups concerned about the Seaport’s future all oppose the proposed tower. The Howard Hughes Corporation maintains that the tower is essential for funding the Museum and making other improvements to the Seaport.
The Conservancy urges the Administration to protect the Museum and the rare look at early New York the buildings on Schermerhorn Row provide.
Click on the video link below for a quick look at the Seaport Museum and a glimpse into early 19th-century New York.
Tourist in Your Own Town #12 – South Street Seaport Museum from New York Landmarks Conservancy on Vimeo.
2015-07-29T18:34:06+00:002015-07-29T18:34:06+00:00Final Grants Conclude Partnership With Empowerment Zonehttp://www.nylandmarks.org/programs_services/project/hebrew_tabernacle_and_mount_olivet_restorations_conclude_successful_ez-gran/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/programs_services/project/hebrew_tabernacle_and_mount_olivet_restorations_conclude_successful_ez-gran/
July 2015
This month, Hebrew Tabernacle in Washington Heights, an Art Deco synagogue originally constructed as a Christian Science Church, marked the successful completion of an $80,000 roof replacement and parapet waterproofing project. This May, Mount Olivet Baptist Church, a Classical Revival Harlem church originally constructed as a synagogue, celebrated the $110,000 restoration of its monumental stained glass lay lights, now returned to their original golden glow, and the replacement of the leaking skylight above them.
These were the final two of seven EZ-grant projects funded via a $300,000 program capitalized by the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation (UMEZ) and administered by the Conservancy between 2006 and 2015. EZ (Empowerment Zone) Grants of up to $50,000 per project funded professional services and capital restoration costs for preserving religious properties of architectural, historic, and cultural merit in Upper Manhattan.
The grants were an ancillary program to a $4 million preservation fund created by the Empowerment Zone in 1999 and administered by the Conservancy. Through the fund, the only one of its kind in the country, the Conservancy made loans and interest free grants to 32 historic religious and cultural institutions throughout Harlem for restoration projects.
The EZ-grants were designed to help kick-start critically needed deferred maintenance projects at historic or landmark-eligible Upper Manhattan religious properties that had not otherwise been able to match Conservancy grants or secure Conservancy loans. The EZ grants were designed to facilitate model repair and restoration projects: feasible, affordable, phased repair that can be replicated by the institutions going forward. The EZ grants funded initial conditions assessments, or project management services, while also providing initial funds to actually implement repairs, without stipulating a grant match.
Hebrew Tabernacle, constructed in 1931-1932, features a central dome with multiple levels of set-back roofs with decorative masonry parapets. Multiple layers of roofing were applied over the last 80 years to nine separate difficult-to-access roofs, and limestone copings at parapets lacked adequate flashing. (more on this project)
An EZ-grant of $50,000 funded both project management by preservation consultant Mary Kay Judy, and a substantial portion of a Phase I, priority roofing and flashing project by contractor Sleszynski Corp., including asbestos abatement, removal of multiple layers of failed roofing, and the installation of new, durable Kemper roofing at one of the nine set-back roofs. A Conservancy Jewish Heritage Fund grant and the congregation met the balance of project costs.
At the 1906-1907 Mt. Olivet Baptist church, designed by Arnold Brunner in the Beaux Arts style for Temple Israel, and where Mt. Olivet Baptist has served the Harlem community since 1925, an EZ-grant of $42,000 funded both assessment and restoration project management by roofing consultant Russ Watsky, and a portion of the $118,000 skylight and stained glass restoration. Originally, budget constraints forced us to consider temporary removal and storage of the stained glass lay lights, but the congregation worried that if removed, they might never be reinstalled, and committed to raise the balance needed to ensure restoration and reinstallation of the gold-tinted stained glass panels at the sanctuary ceiling. Watsky developed a cost effective way to use multiple pre-manufactured skylights to replace the original, badly corroded and leaking metal skylight. General contractor J. Salvatore & Sons installed the new skylights, while the stained glass was restored and reinstalled by the Clagnan Stained Glass Studio.
EZ-grant projects offered support to Upper Manhattan congregations catching up on years of deferred maintenance. The EZ grants facilitated hands on project management: the Conservancy recommended, and funded, the work of architects, preservation consultants, and construction managers, along with a substantial grant towards initial implementation of repairs. At least one EZ grant paved the way for a much larger project, with additional matching grant assistance from the Conservancy’s Sacred Sites program. A $50,000 EZ-grant to St. Cecilia’s in 2010, to help fund façade and roof restoration plans and specifications by architect Arthur Sikula, (more info) was followed by a $30,000 Conservancy challenge grant for roof and façade restoration, a $200,000 New York State restoration grant, and substantial parish and Archdiocese support, as the project has grown from $1.2 to over $2 million, including a new copper roof, extensive brick and terra cotta façade restoration, gable structural repairs, and window restoration. Construction began in 2014 and is nearly complete.
Other EZ grants over the last decade have funded construction management by preservation consultant Ed Kamper and portico roof repair and restoration at the landmark Harlem Italianate villa owned by the Christ Temple of the Apostolic Faith; roof assessment by Judy and repair by Sleszynski at the landmark Metropolitan Baptist Church (more info); and two conditions assessments by CTA Architects, for Mt. Neboh Baptist Church (more info), and for Mount Zion A.M.E. Church. (more info)
2015-07-29T17:01:32+00:002015-07-29T17:01:32+00:00Conditions Report for Riverside Park Monumenthttp://www.nylandmarks.org/programs_services/project/conservation_study_for_the_soldiers_and_sailors_monument/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/programs_services/project/conservation_study_for_the_soldiers_and_sailors_monument/
July 2015
The New York Landmarks Conservancy is partnering with the Riverside Park Conservancy to fund a conditions report and conservation study that will analyze in detail the current state of the landmarked 1902 Soldiers and Sailors Monument. The white marble monument is one of the most beautiful and significant Beaux Arts style memorials in the city. Dedicated to the Union soldiers and sailors who fought in the Civil War, its simple inscription reads: “To the memory of the brave soldiers and sailors who saved the Union”. The first stone was set by Governor Theodore Roosevelt in 1901 and its unveiling was on Memorial Day 1902 (then called “Decoration Day”).
Today, the monument and the magnificent terraces surrounding it are the setting for elaborate Memorial Day celebrations attended by hundreds of veterans and neighborhood residents as well as by politicians and government officials. It is very much still a part of modern life in the Upper West Side.
Meetings with officials at the Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation confirm that a detailed conditions report is needed by the Parks staff to obtain capital funds for the monument’s restoration. No public funds are available to fund such a report so the support of private organizations is crucial.
Conservancy staff met on site with Riverside Park Staff to tour the monument. Both the monument and its surrounding paved terrace are in poor condition. A rare look inside the monument, past the large bronze door, confirmed both the beauty of the architecture and the extent of damage from water penetration.
The temple-like monument, located on a natural high point near W.89th Street was designed by architects Charles and Arthur Stoughton who won a public competition. Their design is a marble cylindrical temple surrounded by 12 Corinthian columns; it is capped with richly carved ornament incorporating eagles and scrolls. Inspired by Greek antiquity, it is based on the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens although at 100 feet in height, it is much larger than its ancient predecessor.
The last meaningful repairs occurred in the 1960’s. Today, the white marble is stained and in many areas painted with grey paint to cover up graffiti. Many of the mortar joints are open allowing water to penetrate the exterior walls. Many of the paving stones on the terrace are chipped or damaged.
The report will include existing condition documentation, fine art survey, terrace survey, probes, marble treatment studies, cleaning studies, restoration scope and estimates of probable costs. It will also produce a modern set of digital base drawings that will be prepared using historical drawings in the possession of the Parks Department as well as on site measurements.
The monument is one of the Upper West Side’s treasures and we seek to make sure it survives in sound condition for the sake of present and future generations.
Watch our video below to learn more about Riverside Park.
2015-07-29T16:26:20+00:002015-07-29T16:26:20+00:00The Corbin Building is Designated an Individual Landmarkhttp://www.nylandmarks.org/programs_services/project/the_corbin_building_is_designated_an_individual_landmark/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/programs_services/project/the_corbin_building_is_designated_an_individual_landmark/
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the richly decorated Corbin Building, on the corner of Broadway and John Street, an individual landmark on June 23. The Conservancy had long advocated for the restoration and designation of the 1889 building and its incorporation into the Fulton Center. It was initially slated to be torn down, along with the rest of the block, for the new facility.
As part of our campaign, the Conservancy brought in engineers to assess the building’s structural stability and to ascertain that it could be adapted for reuse as part of the Fulton Center. We also helped generate political and editorial support. Today the beautifully restored building complements the modern, state of the art, portion lower Manhattan’s new transit hub.
The Corbin was designed by the prominent 19th century architect Francis Hatch Kimball in high ornamented style, featuring elements derived from the Francois Premier style of early 17th century France. Kimball, who was a pioneer in the use of architectural terra cotta, deployed it exceptionally well at Corbin. Its fine arches, belt courses, cornices and parapets, are festooned with richly textured figurative and geometric decoration.
The building also incorporated the latest structural technology of its day including load bearing iron beams and Guastavino tile vaults. The construction technology employed at the Corbin would quickly evolve, in cities like New York and Chicago, into the fully-realized steel skeleton and masonry curtain wall construction of the early skyscrapers. As such, the Corbin can well be described as a proto-skyscraper. At only nine stories in height, it was nevertheless one of the three or four tallest commercial buildings in Manhattan when it opened for business in 1889.
The building’s history has come around a full circle. The original builder and namesake, Austin Corbin, was a transportation pioneer, as a founder of the Long Island Railroad. After a century of housing various offices, it is once again part of the transportation infrastructure. The MTA’s integration of Corbin into the transit hub is an excellent example of how historic buildings can be adapted for new uses. We were thrilled to see the MTA’s spectacular restoration, which has recaptured the beauty of Kimball’s design including light brown sandstone bands accented by ruddy terra cotta trim and bright red painted cast iron window bays. Dragons, griffins, dolphins, urns and spiraling vines are among the varied decorative motifs employed on the two principal street facades. Prior to restoration, the facades were uniformly dark brown. Their cleaning and conservation uncovered the surprisingly colorful and strikingly original appearance that we can admire today. In its newly restored state, the Corbin Building is surely one of the historic gems of lower Manhattan.
2015-06-30T15:53:30+00:002015-06-30T15:53:30+00:00LPC Moves Away From “De-calendaring” Buildingshttp://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/preservation_issues/lpc_de-calendaring_proposal_puts_many_buildings_at_risk/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/preservation_issues/lpc_de-calendaring_proposal_puts_many_buildings_at_risk/
UPDATE – June 2015
Historic buildings that were once on the chopping block will be given a reprieve as the Landmarks Preservation Commission moves away from “de-calendaring” and towards a new plan. The agency has announced that it will hold a series of public hearings this fall to address its backlog of unresolved designations. Link to WSJ story.
The Conservancy, along with preservation colleagues and elected officials, reacted sharply when the LPC issued a November 2014 proposal to remove protections on approximately 95 buildings and one historic district that had been placed on its calendar, received a public hearing, but never had a designation vote. All of the hearings took place over five years ago, and some went as far back as 1966.
Buildings across the boroughs were on the list, from historic religious properties in Brooklyn, to single-family houses in Staten Island and the Bronx, Queens co-ops, and McKim Mead & White’s IRT Powerhouse in Manhattan. Some of the buildings have been restored, others altered, and in some cases ownership has changed. While we agree that the backlog has been lingering for far too long, each building nonetheless deserves a decision based on its merits. (sample of buildings we think should be landmarked)
Responding to the backlash, the LPC withdrew the wide-scale “de-calendaring” and issued a call for public input. The Conservancy joined a coalition that worked with Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer to devise a plan that would allow each building to get a new hearing in a streamlined process that would group buildings by borough, with the intent of clearing out the backlog. The Commission has indicated that its plan will be based on Brewer’s recommendations.
The LPC will be posting research files online this summer, holding hearings in the fall, and allowing the public an opportunity to submit additional information and testimony. We are pleased to be working with the Commission to address this issue and will continue to send alerts as more details become available.
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February 25, 2015
LPC Ignores Preservation Groups on “De-calendaring”
After an outcry from elected officials, preservationists and the public, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) postponed its plan last December to remove almost 100 buildings from a list of properties that had been “calendared” but never designated. Calendaring is the first step in the public review process and a signal that a prior Commission found the properties likely candidates for being landmarked.
Following the postponement, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer convened preservation groups, including the Conservancy, in a series of meetings designed to elicit ways to help the Commission deal with the backlog in an appropriate manner that considered the merits of each building.
Despite being aware of the groups’ positive intentions, LPC declined to meet or to hear the proposals. This week, LPC has placed a notice on its website seeking “public input” on dealing with the list. Without any information on the Commission’s procedures, LPC is asking citizens for “the articulation of standards for identifying which properties should be issued NO Action Letters.” That is, they are asking for which buildings should be removed, not which buildings should be landmarked.
In a letter to LPC Chair Meenakshi Srinivasan, Conservancy President Peg Breen expressed disappointment that LPC is disregarding Borough President Brewer’s efforts. Prior Commissions routinely dealt with this list. Srinivasan has described dealing with the buildings as a “burden.”
The Conservancy has reviewed the list and found many buildings worthy of designation. We agree that, going forward, there should be a time limit for how long buildings remain calendared without further action. The Conservancy strongly opposed LPC’s initial plan and now finds asking the public to propose standards perplexing. It is LPC’s job to devise standards. It is also their job to designate buildings, though there have been relatively few designations this past year compared to the first year of other Administrations.
Click here for the entire list of the 95 sites (LPC)
Click here for maps of the 95 sites(LPC)
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PREVIOUS STORIES ON THIS ADVOCACY ISSUE
Landmarks Commission Postpones “De-calendaring” Hearing
December 5, 2014
The Conservancy is very appreciative that the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) has indefinitely postponed the December 9 hearing to ‘de-calendar’ nearly 100 historic sites.
We are very thankful for all of your support. We’re glad that LPC listened to your voice.
The Conservancy, along with advocates, elected officials, building owners, and preservationists across the City, was alarmed when the LPC announced that it planned to remove protections from buildings it had calendared prior to 2011, with little warning and no public testimony. Yesterday, the Commission agreed to postpone the hearing to allow a more thorough review of these historic properties.
We look forward to working with the LPC as it considers how to address a backlog of buildings, while maintaining its critical mission of protecting New York’s landmarks.
Click here for a look at some of the buildings that you have helped protect.
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December 3, 2014 (before the postponement)
The Landmarks Preservation Commission’s (LPC) proposal for the wholesale elimination of buildings and districts from a list where they have been calendared for more than five years is a troubling step that disregards the Commission’s own responsibility and mission.
*MAPS: *Click Here to See Borough Maps of Proposed Building and Districts
Prior Landmarks Commissions considered these buildings and districts important or they wouldn’t have calendared them in the first place. Calendaring is the first step in the designation process. It offers some protection for buildings because the Department of Buildings must notify LPC if a building permit is requested for a calendared property. The Commission then has 40 days to decide if they are going to designate it.
In today’s “New York Times,” the LPC Chair is quoted as saying that removing these calendared buildings would “unburden” the agency so it could deal with more pressing matters. The Commission’s job is designating landmarks— giving buildings placed in consideration a fair review.
Prior Commissioners have reduced this list, a few buildings at a time, with public explanations of why they were being designated or removed. If the current Commission feels burdened, they could have reached out asking advocates to help determine buildings ready for designation and those that could be removed. Instead, word of this proposed action drizzled out. The Commission put the disposal list on their website the evening before Thanksgiving— for action on December 9.
At the December 9 meeting there will be no public testimony.
The Conservancy, and most advocates, agree that, going forward, there should be a reasonable time limit for the Commission to decide whether to landmark a property. But this proposal, by not revisiting individual items, will put some of these buildings at risk. Saying that advocates can ask for buildings to be re-calendared is no guarantee that the requests would be answered in a timely manner, or approved.
We agree it will take time to address the backlog. But we believe it would be worth it. Nothing is more central to the Commission’s functions than reviewing and acting on these important sites.
The Conservancy has urged the Commission to rethink this proposed de-listing. There is still time for it to do so. If the Commission proceeds as planned, the Conservancy will immediately submit a list for re-calendaring.
TAKE ACTION
If you agree, contact the LPC and ask them to reconsider their ‘de-calendaring’ proposal.
Click here to write the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC).
2015-06-29T19:56:08+00:002015-06-29T19:56:08+00:00Radar Used to Detect Unmarked Burials at Landmark Cemeteryhttp://www.nylandmarks.org/programs_services/project/radar_used_to_detect_unmarked_burials_at_landmark_cemetery/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/programs_services/project/radar_used_to_detect_unmarked_burials_at_landmark_cemetery/
UPDATE – Early Results From Cultural Landscape Report – Survey Finds Hundreds of Additional Graves
Rossville A.M.E. Zion Church Cemetery – Rossville, Staten Island
July 2015
Some interesting early results were received from the Conservancy’s consultants, Jablonski Building Conservation, which is preparing the Cultural Landscape Report for the Rossville AME Zion Church Cemetery (Sandy Ground) in Staten Island. The technician who surveyed the cemetery using ground-penetrating radar hasn’t finished analyzing the data yet, but believes there are about 500 burials in the cemetery. Only about 100 are apparent on a walk-through, though many more people were thought to be buried there.
Of interest also is the marker for a distinguished Sandy Ground resident, George Hunter, who was featured in a New Yorker article by Joseph Mitchell in 1956. The marker omits his date of death, which was known to be 1967. Click here to see Mr. Hunter’s house, his grave marker, and actual burial site.
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June 2015
A ground penetrating radar survey was undertaken last week at the Rossville A.M.E. Zion Church Cemetery in Staten Island as part of a Cultural Landscape Report (CLR) that is in progress. The CLR, which is being now prepared by the firm of Jablonski Building Conservation, Inc. (JBC), will contain all extant research on this historic site, establish marker conservation priorities, recommend a landscape program for the grounds, and set forth a treatment plan for preserving and managing the cemetery in the future. The CLR is made possible with grants from the Richmond County Savings Foundation and the Conservancy’s City Ventures Fund.
Videos and photos were sent by the project consultant (Stephanie Hoagland-Bond of JBC). JBC’s sub-consultant, Tim Horsley, is performing a ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey, as he explains in one video. The objective of the GPR is to identify any burials that are unmarked (or which lost their markers), as suspected by the cemetery’s owner, the Rossville A.M.E. Church.
History
The town of Rossville on Staten Island, colloquially known as “Sandy Ground,” was once the location of a free black community in the mid-19th century. Black oystermen migrated from Maryland to Sandy Ground as a result of racially restrictive commerce laws that were enacted in Maryland. At Sandy Ground, they bought land, built houses, and started commercial businesses. In 1852, the Rossville A.M.E. Church was erected with a cemetery beside it. Though the Church moved to another location, the cemetery remained as the primary burial place for Sandy Ground’s residents.
By the end of the 19th century, the waters around New York City became polluted, destroying the oyster industry and Sandy Ground with it. Today, little remains of what was once a thriving black community. The original Rossville A.M.E. Church Cemetery, however, is one of its few surviving elements. The cemetery contains about 100 burials, with markers documenting the settlers and their families, their prosperity, and their downturn over 175 years. Many people visit the cemetery regularly, traveling far distances to pay homage to their ancestors. The cemetery is a designated City landmark and listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Tim Horsley performing a ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey at Rossville A.M.E. Zion Church Cemetery from New York Landmarks Conservancy on Vimeo.
Tim Horsley performing a ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey at Rossville A.M.E. Zion Church Cemetery – part 2 from New York Landmarks Conservancy on Vimeo.
2015-06-29T15:39:05+00:002015-06-29T15:39:05+00:00LPC: One Step Forward…Many Steps Back in Designating West End Avenue Historic Districthttp://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/preservation_issues/lpc_in_retreat_on_proposed_riverside-west_end_extension_ii/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/preservation_issues/lpc_in_retreat_on_proposed_riverside-west_end_extension_ii/
UPDATE: June 29, 2015
The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated the final stretch of West End Avenue on June 23 but carved out nearly 10% of the originally proposed district. LPC removed more than twenty buildings along Broadway and took out some side streets altogether when it voted to designate the Riverside-West End Avenue Drive Historic District Extension II.
The district was calendared in 2010 and heard in 2011. It had overwhelming political and public support. Only the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) called for eliminating the Broadway buildings.
Some portions of Riverside Drive and West End Avenues had been designated in the 1970s and ‘80s. Starting in 2007, the West End Preservation Society proposed completing designation of all of West End Avenue, which is noted for its cohesive architecture. Former LPC Chair Robert Tierney had agency staff research beyond West End and cover Riverside, the adjacent side streets and the west side of Broadway.
LPC itself proposed a larger district, and broke it into three sections: the first RSD-WE Extension (designated June 2012); the West End – Collegiate Historic District Extension (June 2013); and the extension designated last week. The first two stretch from Riverside to buildings along Broadway.
The Commission gave little prior notice that a substantial number of buildings would be excluded. But when word of the exclusions came out, a long list of elected officials—and all the preservation organizations—asked that the 2010 boundaries remain. Last Tuesday’s session lacked full addresses, images of each buildings, and explanations of why each did not make the cut. It was a public meeting where LPC does not allow public testimony.
The LPC also initially intended to cut out a public school on West End, which would have left a large, unprotected development site in the middle of the district. After hearing fierce opposition, LPC kept the school within the boundaries.
Excluding Broadway undoubtedly pleases REBNY. LPC staff has noted that Broadway is contextually zoned, which limits the height of buildings, and reduces development pressure. However, a current City Planning Department proposal would dramatically increase limits to allow bigger, bulkier buildings, and endanger those historic sites.
While we are pleased that the LPC has protected all of West End Avenue and Riverside Drive, and many of the side streets, Tuesday’s actions were a dangerous precedent that could impact future designations of historic districts. The public needs an early and detailed notice if LPC intends to change district boundaries and an opportunity to speak before the Commission.
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June 24, 2015
The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated the final stretch of West End Avenue yesterday, but only after carving out nearly 10% of the original district. LPC removed more than twenty buildings along Broadway, and took out some side streets altogether.
Click here to see the map
We welcome the completion of an initiative to unite all of West End Avenue within landmark protection. The designation had overwhelming political and public support. But the process was deeply flawed.
There was little prior notice that a large number of buildings would be excluded. No detailed explanation of why some buildings suddenly didn’t make the cut. No chance for public testimony at yesterday’s meeting. What other conclusion can there be than leaving out almost the entire stretch of Broadway is a clear gift to developers. When this district was first heard in 2011, the Real Estate Board of New York specifically asked that Broadway be excluded.
The Commissioners’ vote rebuked the lengthy and detailed work of the agency’s own staff, who researched and recommended the original boundaries and then worked with building owners, in a series of community meetings and one-on-one for years.
The Commission also ignored a long list of elected officials who asked that those boundaries remain intact: Congressman Jerry Nadler, Assemblypersons Daniel O’Donnell and Linda Rosenthal, Borough President Gale Brewer, Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and local Council Member Helen Rosenthal.
LPC defended the absence of public testimony by saying there was no legal requirement for it. That’s not good enough. What happened to transparency and public engagement?
The public needs an early and detailed notice if LPC intends to change district boundaries. The public must have a chance to speak. And the Commissioners must explain how their actions promote preservation.
TAKE ACTION: The Landmarks Commission is a Mayoral agency answering to City Hall. Write Mayor de Blasio and insist that LPC’s process be improved. Tell him that LPC’s job is to protect our heritage and our neighborhoods—-not create development sites.
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June 22, 2015
LPC in Retreat on Proposed Riverside-West End Extension II
The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is reversing its own work. In an unprecedented move, the LPC is slated to remove some 20 buildings from the Riverside West End Historic District Extension II when it takes a vote tomorrow, Tuesday, June 23. Their own staff drew the boundaries and the Commissioners heard overwhelming support for the entire extension from the public and elected officials in an October 2011 hearing.
LPC intends to excise buildings along the west side of Broadway and several side streets (click here to see the map). The Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) specifically objected to the Broadway buildings at the public hearing in 2011.
The Commission had announced that it would vote on this district, but only recently told supporters that they were making significant reductions to the boundaries.
There has been no public explanation for why these buildings will not be protected and there will be no opportunity for the public to object tomorrow.
This is part of a disturbing trend of reversing prior LPC actions. It is not clear what the LPC intends to do with the proposed Bedford Historic District, which had its hearing over two years ago. And it comes as REBNY continues to hammer away in opposition to historic district designation.
The Conservancy is very concerned about what looks like a retreat from LPC’s historic mission.
TAKE ACTION: Contact the Landmarks Preservation Commission and tell them to keep the original boundaries for the Riverside West End Historic District Extension II. Click here for more contact information with LPC.
2015-06-22T17:40:27+00:002015-06-22T17:40:27+00:002015 Chairman’s Award Luncheonhttp://www.nylandmarks.org/events/details/2015_chairmans_award_luncheon/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/events/details/2015_chairmans_award_luncheon/
More than 220 persons attended the Chairman’s Award Luncheon at the Metropolitan Club on June 18 honoring Dr. Michael Horodniceanu, President, MTA Capital Construction and architect Robert A.M. Stern. The award honors business persons, companies and public agencies that have demonstrated their dedication to protecting New York’s rich architectural heritage.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW EVENT PHOTOS
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the City’s landmarks law, the double award illustrated the range of preservation by celebrating both public and private achievements.
Noted architect Robert A.M. Stern was honored for his leadership on a number of important preservation issues—from emphasizing the need to designate modern buildings, to speaking out against a recent proposal that would have irreparably harmed the landmark Four Seasons Restaurant to his early opposition to the proposed expansion of the Frick Museum.
“Much of what we love about our city we owe to the Landmarks Law,” Stern said. “But all is not perfect. Great and beloved architecture and neighborhoods still hang in the crossfire between sentiment and economics and what might be called the ideologies of taste.”
He added: “So let us take this milestone anniversary as our cue to redouble our efforts in order to get back to the ideals that inspired that small band of intrepid picketers—architects mostly, I’m proud to say—who, marching in front of a threatened but drastically underappreciated Penn Station a little more than half a century ago, began a great and enduring fight for the future of our city’s soul.”
Dr. Horodniceanu accepted the award for the superb restoration of the Corbin Building, an early skyscraper by Francis Hatch Kimball on Lower Broadway, and its incorporation into the new Fulton Center.
“By juxtaposing the new on the old,” Dr. Horodniceanu said, “we created a contrast that, when combined, enhances the modern design of the Fulton Center.”
He said restoration included underpinning the building by hand and repairing or replacing over 350 uniquely molded terra cotta pieces on the exterior façade. “As an engineer, he added, working on the Corbin Building was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
Conservancy Chair Lloyd Zuckerberg, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Landmarks Preservation Chair Meenakshi Sreenavasin, Architect and LPC Commissioner Fred Bland and Preservation Architect Page Cowley all saluted the honorees.
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More info about the honorees and the event
The New York Landmarks Conservancy inaugurated the Chairman’s Award in 1988 to recognize exceptional individuals, organizations, and businesses that have demonstrated their dedication to protecting New York’s rich architectural heritage.
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the New York City Landmarks Law, the Landmarks Conservancy presented its 2015 Chairman’s Award to:
Dr. Michael Horodniceanu – MTA Capital Construction
MTA Capital Construction (MTACC) serves as the MTA’s project management arm for mega-projects, which require an exceptional degree of coordination within and outside the MTA. Dr. Michael Horodniceanu was appointed President of MTACC in 2008.
Located at the corner of Broadway and John Street, the historic Corbin Building has been restored and incorporated into the new Fulton Transit Center.
The building (circa 1888-89), was designed by the prominent 19th-century architect Francis Hatch Kimball in a richly ornamented Romanesque revival style. It incorporated the latest structural technology of its day including weight bearing iron beams and Guastavino tile vaults. The construction technology employed at the Corbin would quickly evolve into the fully-realized steel skeleton of the early skyscrapers. As such, the Corbin can well be described as a proto-skyscraper. At only nine stories in height, it was nevertheless one of the tallest commercial buildings in Manhattan when it opened for business in 1889. Its namesake, Austin Corbin, was the president of the Long Island Rail Road.
MTACC has adapted a 19th-century architectural gem into a 21st-century transit hub.
Robert A.M. Stern
Robert A.M. Stern is a practicing architect, teacher, and writer. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and received the AIA New York Chapter’s Medal of Honor in 1984 and the Chapter’s President’s Award in 2001. Mr. Stern is the 2011 Driehaus Prize laureate and in 2008, received the tenth Vincent Scully Prize from the National Building Museum. In 2007, he received both the Athena Award from the Congress for the New Urbanism and the Board of Director’s Honor from the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America. As Founder and Senior Partner of Robert A.M. Stern Architects, he personally directs the design of each of the firms’ projects.
Mr. Stern is the J.M. Hoppin Professor of Architecture and Dean of the Yale School of Architecture. He was previously Professor of Architecture and Director of the Historic Preservation Program at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University. Mr. Stern served from 1984 to 1988 as the first director of Columbia’s Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture. He is the author of several books and 17 books have been published about his work.
Mr. Stern’s work has been exhibited at numerous galleries and universities and is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Centre Pompidou, the Denver Art Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
In 1976, 1980, and 1996, he was among the architects selected to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale, and he served as Chair of the International Jury in 2012.
In 1986, Mr. Stern hosted “Pride of Place: Building the American Dream,” an eight-part, eight-hour documentary television series aired on PBS.
Mr. Stern is a graduate of Columbia University (B.A., 1960) and Yale University (M. Architecture, 1965).
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The New York Landmarks Conservancy
Chairman’s Award Luncheon
June 18, 2015
The Metropolitan Club, 1 East 60th Street
Honorary Chairs
Fred Bland, Craig Covil, Page Cowley, Frank Sciame,
and Elizabeth Stribling
Honorary Co-Chairs
Dick Anderson, Jay Badame, John H. Beyer, Hon. Gale Brewer, Joan Davidson, Clark Halstead, Alexa Hampton, Robert A. Levine, Hon. Carolyn Maloney, Steve Meringoff, Hon. Jerrold Nadler, Nancy and Otis Pearsall, George Ranalli, Milo Riverso, Hon. Charles E. Schumer, Robert Selsam, Stuart Siegel, Chris Ward, Carl Weisbrod, and Sam White
(list in formation)
About the Chairman’s Award
The Chairman’s Award is the Conservancy’s highest honor recognizing exceptional business leaders or organizations that have demonstrated their dedication to protecting New York’s architectural legacy, breathing life into the unique character of our beloved City.
Click here to view past Chairman’s Award events.
2015-06-18T20:27:46+00:002015-06-18T20:27:46+00:00Picasso Curtain Moves into New Home at Historical Societyhttp://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/preservation_issues/picasso_curtain_threatened/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/preservation_issues/picasso_curtain_threatened/
UPDATE: May 17, 2015
The Picasso Curtain is all spiffed up and waiting to receive visitors at its new home at The New-York Historical Society. The exhibition is now open, plan a visit.
After a thorough cleaning by conservators at the Williamstown Art Conservation Center and expert lighting where it now hangs in Dexter Hall at the Society, the Curtain looks better than ever.
President Louise Mirrer said the Historical Society was the “perfect place” for the Curtain because it will be featured not just as a great work of art, but also as an important icon of the City’s cultural history.
“I grew up with this Picasso,” she said at a press briefing, adding she was thrilled it was now part of the Society’s collection.
Conservancy President Peg Breen told the press briefing that the controversy surrounding the Curtain’s move from the Four Seasons made the piece one of Picasso’s best-known works in New York. “It was always meant to be seen by New Yorkers”, she added, “and now even more people will have the opportunity to enjoy it.”
The Curtain was installed at the Society over several hours on May 17 by the skilled firms who removed it from the Four Seasons last Fall: Art Installation Design and Auer’s Moving and Rigging. Once again, careful rehearsal paid off. The 20 foot wide Curtain arrived rolled around a giant tube that was raised by a crane on West 77th Street and guided through a small second floor window. Workers clambered up specially designed scaffolding to place the Curtain in its wall mount and slowly and carefully unroll it. All the witnesses applauded when the entire Curtain came into view.
The Conservancy gave the Curtain to the Historical Society following a court approved settlement. The Conservancy sued the current owner of the Seagram Building seeking to keep the Curtain at the Four Seasons, where it had hung since the restaurant opened in 1959. It was specially selected for the space by architect Philip Johnson, who designed the restaurant, and Phyllis Lambert, who convinced her father, Samuel Bronfman, to hire both Johnson and architect Mies van der Rohe, who designed the Seagram Building. A later building owner, Vivendi, gave the Curtain to the Conservancy in 2005 when they sold the Seagram Building to the current owner. It was meant as a “gift to the City,” and the Conservancy’s task was to care for the artwork and keep it in place. When it became clear that the current owner would not renew the Four Season’s lease if the Picasso remained, the Conservancy worked to ensure that the Curtain would remain on public view.
In its new home at the Historical Society, the Curtain remains “New York’s Picasso.”
Watch a time-lapse video of the installation
New York Times Coverage
Photo from the Press Conference
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November 25, 2014
Picasso Curtain Update: Cleaning and Restoration
The Picasso Curtain is getting a “little work done” to look its best when it returns to public view at the New-York Historical Society in the spring.
The Williamstown Art Conservation Center in Williamstown, Massachusetts is working on the large, 1919 artwork. Center Director Thomas Branchick said the Curtain is “in excellent structural condition.” Conservators are carefully cleaning the Curtain, repairing minor surface tears, and correcting some overpainting, which was done in the 1970s.
The Conservancy had an experienced conservator do surface cleaning on the front of the Curtain after it was given to us in 2005. But the back has not been able to be cleaned since it was rehung in the Four Seasons after extensive conservation work in the 1970s.
Picasso painted “Le Tricorne” as a curtain for the Ballets Russes. It depicts his then wife, Olga, who was a ballerina with the company. And art historians consider the man peering over Olga’s shoulder in the painting to be Picasso himself. At 20’x19’ it is the largest Picasso artwork in America and one of only three Picasso ballet curtains extant.
The Curtain was purchased specifically for the Four Seasons by architect Philip Johnson, and his client, Phyllis Lambert. Lambert was the driving force behind hiring both Johnson and Mies van der Rohe for the project. The Seagram lobby was designed so that the Curtain could be seen from the lobby, the building Plaza and even from the street. Both the building and restaurant rooms are landmarked. But the Curtain was not part of the designation.
After a legal battle, the Conservancy reached a settlement agreement earlier this year with the current Seagram Building owner to remove the Curtain. The owner agreed to pay for the removal, conservation work and move to its new home in The New-York Historical Society. The Conservancy is giving the Curtain to the Society so that it can remain on public view as “New York’s Picasso.” The Society is planning to exhibit it this coming spring.
CLICK HERE TO SEE RESTORATION PHOTOS
September 8, 2014
Picasso Curtain Carefully and Successfully Moved
During the weekend of September 7 Picasso’s “Le Tricorne” was successfully removed from the Four Seasons restaurant. Bravo to Lead Technician Tom Zoufaly of Art Installation Design and his staff and the great team from Auer’s Rigging & Moving. They moved the largest Picasso artwork in the country in an intricate 12-hour operation. It’s the end of an era. The 20-foot high Curtain has been the centerpiece of the Four Seasons restaurant since 1959. But it is also the beginning of a new era for this important artwork.
The New York Times did a nice job documenting the entire nerve-racking process. Learn more about the removal and see the crew at work.
The 95-year-old curtain is now at The Williamstown Art Conservation Center in Williamstown, MA. for some minor conservation and cleaning. It will then go to it’s new home at the New-York Historical Society where even more people will be able to enjoy “New York’s Picasso.”
PHOTOS FROM THE MOVE
PBS News Hour Video
August 25, 2014
Picasso On The Move
The Picasso Curtain is scheduled to be moved from the Four Seasons Restaurant on September 6 and 7—the first step toward its new home in The New-York Historical Society.
The elaborate move will involve some twenty experts from both Art Installation Design and Auer’s Rigging. Both companies have wide experience moving artwork for museums and private collectors.
The team will arrive at the restaurant closes on September 6. It will take about six hours to construct the scaffolding and rigging needed to handle the 20 by 18 foot Curtain. Then the Curtain will be very slowly and carefully rolled around a large, 24-inch diameter, specially designed, roller. This will take several more hours.
The Curtain will then be taken to the Williamstown Art Conservation Center in Williamstown, Mass. The respected Center has the expertise, and the space, required to handle this large and important piece. The Curtain will be cleaned and some minor surface tears repaired. We don’t expect any major work to be performed unless the conservators discover something when they inspect the Curtain.
Once conservation is completed, the Curtain will be taken to the Historical Society. It will be placed on public view next spring. Its new location will allow many more people to see “New York’s Picasso.”
The 1919 piece has hung in the Four Seasons since the restaurant opened in 1959. It has not been moved since the 1970s when it was temporarily taken down for comprehensive conservation. A backing was placed on the piece at that time which has held the weight of the Curtain but added some stiffness to the canvas surface.
The Curtain’s age and size make the upcoming move very tricky. In addition to the expert movers, Sarah Lowengard, the conservator who has cared for the Curtain since it was given to the Conservancy in 2005 will be on hand. She will be joined by the chief conservator of the Historical Society. Peg Breen and Conservancy Technical Director Alex Herrera will also be there.
The move was agreed to in a settlement after a very public legal battle over the Curtain. Under the terms of the settlement, RFR Holding, the owner of the Seagram Building where the Four Seasons is located, is paying for the conservation and both moves.
The Conservancy is very grateful to our board member Michael DeChiara and his partner James Rowland who represented us in Court and continue to offer advice and counsel.
Settlement Reached: June 12, 2014
Settlement Reached: Picasso Curtain to Move to New-York Historical Society and Remain on Public View
The Landmarks Conservancy has reached a settlement agreement with Aby Rosen, owner of the Seagram Building, that will end our legal battle and place the Picasso Curtain in a new home at The New-York Historical Society— where it will be seen by an even wider segment of the public.
Vivendi, the company that once owned the Seagram Building, gave the 1919 artwork to the Conservancy in 2005 as a “gift to the City” with the caveat that the Conservancy maintain it in place within the Four Seasons Restaurant where it has hung since the restaurant opened in 1959. The restaurant, designed architect Philip Johnson, is considered one of the loveliest interior landmarks in the country and the Curtain has been its centerpiece.
We did our best to maintain it in place. But our only leverage was that the Curtain is specifically included in the current restaurant lease. It was made clear to us that the Curtain would not be included in whatever new lease is negotiated. So, if we had prevailed in Court, the most a judge could grant is that the Curtain stay until the end of the current lease.
Under the settlement, Mr. Rosen will pay for the Curtain’s removal, any conservation required, and for the move to the Historical Society. That is a great help. The Historical Society, under the able leadership of its President and CEO Louise Mirrer, will provide a wonderful home. We have engaged an excellent art moving company and are in the process of selecting a New York City based conservator.
The move will be complicated and our concerns about moving the artwork remain. The Curtain is large—20 feet by 20 feet—and heavy. The canvas material is also brittle. There is the possibility of some damage no matter how careful the move. But we will have conservators on hand—and the Curtain will be taken for conservation—so this is the best chance to move it safely.
Our longtime conservator, Sarah Lowengard, has taken excellent care of the Curtain through the years. We have been assisted recently by a volunteer group of conservators from the American Institute for Conservation chaired by AIC Vice-President Margaret Holben Ellis. The group includes Jim Coddington, Paul Himmelstein, Pete Omlor, Edmund Meade and Matthew Skopek. We are very grateful for their input.
Conservancy Board Member Michael DeChiara of Zetlin and DeChiara, and his partner James H. Rowland, provided invaluable legal help. We will always be thankful for the enormous amount of time they devoted to this and for their guidance.
Conservancy Advisory Board Member Jennifer Franklin helped fashion our agreement with the Historical Society.
Our quest to save the Curtain garnered national and international publicity and wide support from art experts and writers. The settlement ensures that this now beloved work will be available to the public for the foreseeable future.
PRESS COVERAGE
The New York Times
NY Post
Reuters
Associated Press
Bloomberg News
CBS
ABC News
US News & World Report
Crain’s New York Business
Huffington Post
The Real Deal
NY Eater
Chicago Tribune
Daily Star
Update: April 29, 2014
Judge Carol Edmead of State Supreme Court issued an interim order on April 28 adjourning the proceedings on the Picasso Curtain until June 25 with the consent of both parties. Both sides are discussing a possible agreement.
From March 28, 2014
The Conservancy will be in State Supreme Court this coming Wednesday seeking to keep the Picasso Curtain in place at the Four Seasons Restaurant, where it has hung since the landmark establishment opened in 1959.
Click here to see high resolution image of the curtain
We have been delighted by the wide support for our effort. Art and architecture critics, prominent architects and philanthropists, the Editorial Board of The New York Times have all voiced support for leaving the Picasso where it is. More than 300 persons signed a petition to keep it in place as well. The battle has generated national and international press.
The Conservancy won a temporary restraining order on February 7, preventing the owner of the Seagram Building from removing the Curtain, as he hoped to do, on February 9. State Supreme Court Justice Matthew Cooper granted the TRO and said he considered the Picasso part of the City’s cultural heritage.
Picasso painted “Le Tricorne” for the Ballets Russes in 1919. It is the largest Picasso painting in America and considered an important work by the artist. Architect Philip Johnson selected the 19’ by 20’ Curtain especially for the restaurant he designed. It was given to the Conservancy in 2005.
Developer Aby Rosen, who owns the Seagram Building, wants to display pieces from his contemporary art collection in “Picasso Alley,” the large corridor between the Grill and Pool Rooms at the restaurant where the Curtain hangs.
The Four Seasons is considered one of the loveliest interior landmarks in the country and the Curtain, while not itself designated, has always been the iconic centerpiece of the restaurant. It is visible from the lobby and the street.
Prominent engineers we engaged dismissed two separate “building emergencies” that supposedly required the Curtain to be removed. There was no “steam pipe leak” and the wall adjacent to the Curtain is in no danger of failing. We have several prominent art conservators who have countered the latest claim—that the Curtain needs to be removed to be restored. Most conservators agree that the Curtain is stable and fine where it is, while moving it would likely cause damage. The Curtain would need to be carefully rolled onto a 20-foot long cylinder. A backing put on the Curtain in the 1970s has held the weight of the piece, but has stiffened it, making rolling it hazardous. The paint might flake off or the fabric tear in the process.
The Conservancy was given the Curtain with the charge of keeping it in place and maintaining it as a gift to the City. That is what we are fighting to do.
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Picasso Story Goes Global
Update: February 28, 2014
The Conservancy’s battle to keep Pablo Picasso’s great theatrical work “Le Tricorne,” in its rightful place within the Four Seasons Restaurant in the Seagram Building has generated wide press and even wider public support here and across the country. But it is also making international news.
Not surprisingly, Spanish publications such as “artemagazine,” “EL MUNDO,” and “elEconomista.es” are covering the story. But others, such as “America Oggi,” the Italian language newspaper, and Britain’s “Daily Mail” are covering the story as well.
This past Sunday, The New York Times Editorial Board strongly endorsed our efforts. They stated, in part, “the survival of a Picasso, even a semipublic one, should concern everybody” and concluded: “The far better outcome would be for the curtain to stay where Philip Johnson put it, where it belongs.”
Picasso created the 19 by 20 foot Curtain in 1919 for the Ballets Russes. Architect Philip Johnson, who designed the Four Seasons space, placed the Curtain on the wall that connects the restaurant’s two dining rooms in 1959, intended it as a permanent feature. The hallway where it hangs is known as “Picasso Alley.” Both the Restaurant and Seagram Building have used the Curtain as their iconic symbol. The building and the restaurant are both landmarked.
The Curtain is visible from the Seagram Lobby and Park Avenue and has been part of the City’s cultural heritage for more than half a century.
Aby Rosen, who owns the Seagram Building, claims the Curtain must be removed to repair travertine panels in “Picasso Alley.” Two respected engineering firms the Conservancy engaged, dispute the claim, as does the architect who has done extensive restoration at the Restaurant.
The Conservancy won a Temporary Restraining Order in State Supreme Court on February 7 that stopped Rosen from removing the Curtain until a full court hearing. That hearing was pushed back this week from March 11 until April 2.
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Picasso Stays in Place for Now After Court Win
Update: February 10, 2014
We were delighted to win a temporary restraining order in State Supreme Court last Friday that prevented yesterday’s scheduled removal of the Picasso Curtain from the Four Seasons Restaurant. Judge Matthew Cooper called the Curtain “part of the City’s cultural heritage” and “irreplaceable.” He shot down an argument from an attorney for Seagram Building owner Aby Rosen who said the Landmarks Conservancy had no claim to damages if the Curtain was destroyed in the move because “If we break it, we buy it.” Curators and art moving companies have all said the best thing is to leave the Curtain where it has been for fifty years because moving the giant 19’ by 19’ artwork could cause it to crack and break.
This New York Post Story captured the flavor of the hearing.
The Landmarks Conservancy’s mission is to preserve our historic built environment. The curtain is the largest Picasso artwork in the country and an integral part of a heralded interior landmark—the Four Seasons Restaurant. That is why it was entrusted to our care in 2005, and why we are fighting to keep it there, in public, on view for all New Yorkers.
Noted Architecture Critic Paul Goldberger eloquently explains why the restaurant—and Curtain—are so special in a column posted Friday on VanityFair.com.
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New York Times Article – Picasso Curtain Threatened
The New York Times story from February 4, 2014 details the Conservancy’s efforts to protect the Picasso Curtain, which hangs in the Four Seasons Restaurant. The Curtain is the largest Picasso artwork in America and the iconic centerpiece of the Restaurant—one of the loveliest interior landmarks in the country.
The New York Times – February 4, 2014
CLICK HERE – At Four Seasons, Picasso Tapestry Hangs on the Edge of Eviction
By David Segal
The then owners of the landmark Seagram Building gave the Curtain to the Conservancy in 2005 with the understanding that we would keep it in place. We have had a conservator regularly inspect and clean it since. Now, in response to a concern that the wall where it hangs needs repair, two engineers reports conclude that there is no structural reason to move the Curtain. Three professional art-moving firms have all said that—despite their best efforts—moving could damage the Curtain.
This is a large, 19’ by 20’ canvas created for the Ballets Russes in 1919, which has hung in the Restaurant since it opened in 1959. It was specifically purchased for the Restaurant. A backing installed before we received it has stiffened the Curtain. It cannot be folded. Moving it would require slowly and carefully rolling it around a giant cylinder.
Both engineering firms said that, since minor displacement of the wall occurred some time ago and poses no threat to the Curtain, the logical move would be to install monitors to determine if any new movement occurs. The Conservancy has offered to pay for this monitoring. Removal of the Curtain would be, in effect, a loss of public art and break the proud legacy of the Seagram Building—which the Bronfman family built and viewed as a gift to the City.
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Thank You
Our thanks to all of you who have written to ask that the Picasso Curtain remain at the Four Seasons Restaurant. One writer was told that the Conservancy has neglected the Curtain and that it has to be removed to be conserved. That is not correct. This is the third reason given for removing the Curtain.
Here are the facts.
We have had a respected textile conservator, Sarah Lowengard, regularly care for the curtain since shortly after we received it in 2005. The deed of gift asked that we keep it in place. We intend to do that.
When Ms. Lowengard first examined the curtain, she researched its history and prior conservation, and discussed the Curtain with other conservators who had worked on it. At that time, a Kunstalle in Frankfurt Germany was interested in exhibiting the Curtain. She advised against moving the Curtain then to avoid damage. She says it should not be moved now for the same reason.
The Curtain has age-related issues. In the 1970s the back of the Curtain was lined. Ms. Lowengard’s initial report notes that the canvas is brittle: “..an unavoidable characteristic of the material as it dries out, oxidizes or becomes more acidic. It is unlikely that (past) surface treatments reversed or even stopped that damage. So folding or rolling the textile would place the original materials at risk of cracking or splitting.”
During a two-day cleaning of the Curtain in 2008, Ms. Lowenstein inspected the artwork inch by inch. She noted some tears and patches that she believed occurred before the 1970s conservation. She said the these were “well managed by the lining—these are not active tears.”
She reported again this week that: “ The best way to preserve the curtain is to maintain it in place. Removal from the space will almost certainly cause breaks and cracks to the canvas and probably losses in the paint layer as well.”
Yesterday, conservators from Julius Lowy Frame and Restoring Company also examined the Curtain. In a letter to the Conservancy, Larry Shar, President of Lowy, noted the brittleness. “it is, therefore, our opinion that the painting is best left on the wall undisturbed.” If it had to be moved, Mr. Shar said a multi-step process that would take 7-8 working days is required to minimize any damage. The Curtain is scheduled to be moved this coming Sunday. With the restaurant scheduled to resume operations on Monday morning—a matter of hours, not days.
The company hired to move the Curtain this weekend told us it could “crack like a potato chip.”
We have two separate engineering reports that conclude there is no structural reason to move the Curtain. There is every reason to keep it as the iconic heart of one of the loveliest interior landmark spaces in the Country.
The Picasso is visible from the lobby of the Seagram Building. It has been used in promotions for the building and the restaurant. It was always intended as public art that New Yorkers should enjoy. It’s your Picasso. That’s why we’re working to save it.
2015-05-28T16:29:08+00:002015-05-28T16:29:08+00:00Exporting Preservation: New York City to Tbilisi, Georgiahttp://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/preservation_issues/conservancy_president_visits_tbilisi_georgia_as_preservation_ambassador/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/preservation_issues/conservancy_president_visits_tbilisi_georgia_as_preservation_ambassador/
UPDATE: May 28, 2015
The Conservancy and the Friends of the Upper East Side presented a joint program at the General Mechanics Society Library detailing how New York’s preservation laws and programs are helping to guide preservation efforts in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Photos from event
Georgia is an ancient country struggling to reclaim and preserve its unique heritage following its independence from the Soviet Union and also battling large developments that threaten to overwhelm Tbilisi, the capital city. Conservancy President Peg Breen and Friends Executive Director Tara Kelly were in Tbilisi last fall on separate trips sponsored by the U.S. State Department.
Breen and Kelly both praised the U.S. Ambassador Richard Norland, who helps fund Georgian preservation efforts and who sees preservation as key to the country’s economic future.
They recounted their experiences last night, joined by conservator Mary Kay Judy, who did several preservation projects in Georgia in the late 1990s, and Lena Kiladze, a Tbilisi architect who heads The American Friends of Georgia in Tbilisi.
Both Kelly and Kiladze showed pictures of existing high-rise buildings that are out of place in the older sections of the city and proposed developments on the high cliffs on either side of Tbilisi that would dominate the rest of the city, which was founded in the 4th century. Like in New York, some Georgian elected officials think that large buildings are necessary to attract tourists and development.
Kelly also showed large public protests against some of the projects. And every speaker said they urged the public to speak out and demand protection of their heritage.
Breen detailed meetings with preservation oriented elected officials. Municipal Assembly Member Tamar Taliashvili brought together representatives of the various embassies in Tbilisi to urge multinational laws and mutual respect of heritage. Breen spoke to the group about how the Conservancy puts together private and public funding on restoration projects and detailed federal and state reports on the economic benefits of preservation.
Kelly noted that New York’s 50 year old Landmarks Law has always been a model for other American cities and now it is helping to shape preservation overseas.
_______________________________________
October 2014
Conservancy President Speaks in Tbilisi as Guest of U.S. Embassy
Landmarks Conservancy President Peg Breen spent last week in Tbilisi, Georgia discussing architectural preservation as an economic development tool and urging Georgian officials to protect that country’s unique cultural and architectural heritage. She was a guest of the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi and worked closely with the American Friends of Georgia.
Click here to view Tbilisi photo album.
U.S. Ambassador Richard B. Norland said cultural preservation “holds considerable significance not only for Georgia’s economic development but also its further democratic evolution.” He added that he looks forward to “building on your visit.”
Tbilisi sits at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. It has monuments and churches dating from the 4th and 5th centuries, a medieval Old City, Islamic architecture, and Art Deco and Classical style homes and public buildings built during the Soviet occupation of Georgia. While Tbilisi’s “Grand Synagogue” was built at the end of the 19th century, the City is currently celebrating 2600 years of Jewish life and culture.
With all its incredible history, Tbilisi is also experiencing development pressures for new hotels, office buildings and homes. Tbilisi residents are fighting a proposed hotel development in a major park and are very concerned about a privately funded proposal for three new high-rise office complexes in different sections of the City to be connected by gondolas.
“Citizens in Tbilisi want a say in how their City is developed and preserved,” Breen said. “New Yorkers can understand that.”
Breen met with local and national elected officials, architects, students, local ICOMOS representatives and residents eager to learn about our preservation laws and the public participation built into our preservation and development statutes. She addressed a cultural heritage meeting at Tbilisi’s Assembly—the equivalent of New York’s City Council—met with the heads of banks and private investment firms, and gave public speeches at the National Museum, National Library and School of Architecture.
Local ICOMOS architects are focusing on the Betlemi Quarter of the Old City, organizing residents and training craftspeople on restoration techniques. The World Monuments Fund, Kress Foundation and UNESCO have helped them in the past with planning.
Nato Tsintsabadze, an architect who volunteers for ICOMOS, greeted us holding preservation economist Donovan Rypkema’s manual on community organizing. She explained that there is an “official protection zone and buffer” for the Old City that was created in the 1970s and expanded in the 1980’s. But she said that, in one section, the City demolished old homes and replaced them with new construction made to look old. Many people expressed a desire for their preservation laws to be updated and include a specific process for community input.
Under Ambassador Norland, the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation is helping to support the architectural preservation of the Church of the Virgin at the Gelati Monastery, a major cultural World Heritage Monument three hours west of Tbilisi. The most recent project there is the study and conservation of the mural painting within the dome of the Church. The World Bank is helping to fund the rehabilitation of the stone surface and structure of the Church.
Gelati developed from the 12th to 18th centuries on a high hillside overlooking the old Georgian capital of Kutaisi. The view includes a broad valley and snowcapped peaks of the Caucasus Mountains in the distance. It continues as a popular destination for Georgians and tourists alike.
Since 2001, the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation has supported more than a dozen preservation projects that have conserved frescos and icons at ancient churches, an archaeological site with ruins dating from the 4th century BC, medieval manuscripts and museum collections, and created a database of historic sites in the Historic Center of Tbilisi.
The American Friends of Georgia initially suggested Breen’s visit to the Embassy. The non-profit group was founded by the late New Yorker Constantine Sidamon-Eristoff and supports numerous social, medical and educational programs in Georgia. Architect Lena Kiladze, head of AFG in Tbilisi, has wide connections and is a major voice for Georgian heritage conservation.
At AFG’s suggestion, the U.S. Embassy also has invited Tara Kelly, executive director of the Friends of the Upper East Side, to visit Tblisi in early November and discuss educational programming.
2015-05-28T15:55:20+00:002015-05-28T15:55:20+00:00Proposed Alterations at Four Seasons Restauranthttp://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/our_public_testimony/proposed_alterations_at_four_seasons_restaurant/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/our_public_testimony/proposed_alterations_at_four_seasons_restaurant/
May 19, 2015
2015-05-27T17:22:24+00:002015-05-27T17:22:24+00:00LPC Rejects RFR Proposal to Change Four Seasonshttp://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/preservation_issues/lpc_turns_down_four_seasons_proposal/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/preservation_issues/lpc_turns_down_four_seasons_proposal/
Four Seasons Restaurant
99 East 52nd Street, Seagram Building, Manhattan
May 27, 2015
After listening to unanimous opposition from an impressive array of experts, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) rejected changes to the Four Seasons restaurant that would have damaged one of the most architecturally significant interior landmarks in the country. RFR Holding, owner of the Seagram Building, proposed removing original fabric as part of proposed changes to the iconic restaurant.
The Conservancy’s testimony was among those heard by the Commission at the May 19th public hearing. But weeks prior to the hearing, the Conservancy was working with colleagues such as Phyllis Lambert and Robert A.M. Stern, to convince the project architect, and her client, to delete several inappropriate parts of the project even before they reached the public hearing stage.
One of the items that never made it to hearing was the installation of a transparent covering over the entrance canopy to the Four Seasons. It was removed from consideration because the Conservancy holds a preservation easement on the exterior of the Seagram Building and as such is empowered to approve or deny all exterior changes prior to review by the LPC. The Conservancy found that the existing canopy (and a similar one leading to the Brasserie Restaurant) is original and was designed to be understated and intimate as opposed to the much grander canopies leading to the Seagram Building’s main lobby. Furthermore part of the entry sequence to the Four Seasons is through the unassuming canopy and front doors that eventually leads the visitor to the breathtaking main space with its twenty-foot, floor-to-ceiling windows. For these reasons, the Conservancy denied the canopy alterations.
Unlike the exterior, the Conservancy’s role on the interior was advisory but nonetheless two other inappropriate changes were deleted from the plans prior to going before the Commission. One of these was the replacement of a wine cellar, visible through a glass panel as one enters the Pool Room, with bathrooms. The other consisted of irreversible alterations to the beautifully matched travertine wall panels in the entrance lobby.
What the Commissioners did review were proposed changes to the intact and original French walnut panels in the Pool Room and the removal of a Philip Johnson-designed glass and bronze screen in the Grill Room that separates the bar area from the dining area.
At the hearing, a remarkable group of experts testified in opposition to the proposal. Among the speakers were: Phyllis Lambert, who is credited with convincing her father, Seagram president Samuel Bronfman, to hire Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson to design a magnificent new headquarters for the Seagram Company; Edgar Bronfman Jr., Ms. Lambert’s nephew and a part owner of the Four Seasons; Alex Von Bidder, Maître D’ and part owner; Barry Bergdoll Columbia Professor and MOMA curator, Andrew Dolkart, dean of the Historic Preservation Program at Columbia University; a son of Joe Baum who was the creator (with Restaurants Associates) of the Four Seasons; Sherida Paulsen who recalled her years working at the Johnson Firm; and many others. A statement by Robert AM Stern was read by one of his senior associates. Taken as a whole, it was remarkably erudite testimony the likes of which the Commission has rarely if ever heard. At the conclusion of the public testimony, the LPC Chair, Meenakshi Srinivasan commented that it was clear that they were dealing with a “different level of landmark.”
The Commission discussed the proposal for about thirty minutes. Many Commissioners voiced their opposition to the proposal echoing many of the sentiments heard during the public comment period. In the end, the Commission acted to approve replacement carpeting for the restaurant and nothing else.
2015-05-27T16:49:20+00:002015-05-27T16:49:20+00:00Panel Agrees, Room for Both Preservation and Developmenthttp://www.nylandmarks.org/events/details/panel_discussion_-_preservation_and_development_-_may_27/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/events/details/panel_discussion_-_preservation_and_development_-_may_27/
May 27, 2015
The Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Avenue, Manhattan
Historic Districts do NOT prevent growth. That was the majority conclusion of the panel of experts who addressed the question “Preservation and Development: Is There Room In This Town for Both” at the Morgan Library this past Wednesday evening.
In a spirited but collegial dialogue, Building Congress President Richard Anderson, NYU Furman Center Director Ingrid Gould Ellen, architect Morris Adjmi and preservationist and author Roberta Gratz, all agreed that the City’s historic districts contained new growth and, in many cases, encouraged better modern design. Land Use Attorney Michael Sillerman rounded out the panel, which was moderated by New York Magazine’s Justin Davidson.
“There is $38 billion of development in the City right now,” Anderson said. “So, no, historic districts haven’t stopped growth.” But he added that the City Planning Department should have a stronger role in designating any future districts so that growth would not be impeded.
Gould Ellen also said historic districts are only one of many factors that influence property values and cautioned that the negative role of preservation is being exaggerated in the debate over affordable housing.
Adjmi made the case for evolving historic districts by showing several of his designs for new buildings in those areas, including the award winning 837 Washington in the Meatpacking District.
New York Magazine Critic Davidson proved to be a skillful and erudite moderator pressing the panelists with his own thoughts and weaving in questions from the audience. “Do landmark regulations make it tougher to build or is it just New York?” he asked at one point. “It’s New York.” Adjmi replied to laughter.
“I was a critic before I joined the Landmarks Commission,” Roberta Gratz said. “But I was amazed at the process when I was there. These are independent, thoughtful people and no one gratuitously turns down new development.” She added: “There is plenty of new development in historic districts right now.”
Kramer Levin partner Michael Sillerman thoughtfully presented the Real Estate Board of New York’s concerns about historic districts and emphasized the need for especially new commercial growth to maintain the City’s status as a world capitol.
______________________________
“Preservation and Development: Is there room in this town for both?”
The dynamics between preservation and development are essential elements of the energy and vitality that defines New York. As the Landmarks Law reaches its 50th anniversary, the Conservancy has convened a panel of experts from the worlds of architecture, preservation, planning, and development to examine how these two forces have worked in and out of balance over the decades, and how they can both thrive as the City continues to grow and evolve.
Moderator:
Justin Davidson, New York Magazine
Panelists:
Michael Sillerman, Land Use Attorney, Kramer Levin
Richard Anderson, President, The New York Building Congress
Roberta Gratz, Writer and Preservationist
Morris Adjmi, Founder & Principal, Morris Adjmi Architects
Ingrid Gould Ellen, Director, Furman Center for Land Use and Urban Policy, New York University
We are grateful to this evening’s sponsor: Sciame Construction
2015-05-26T20:14:21+00:002015-05-26T20:14:21+00:00Citywide Rezoning Plan Revamped!http://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/preservation_issues/fast-tracked_zoning_proposal_would_raise_building_heights_throughout_the_ci/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/preservation_issues/fast-tracked_zoning_proposal_would_raise_building_heights_throughout_the_ci/
UPDATE: MAY 18, 2015
Improvements to “Zoning for Quality and Affordability” Proposal …. But Questions Remain
We asked you to speak out against the City Planning Department’s proposal for so-called “Zoning for Quality and Affordability.” The proposal would allow buildings to go from 5 to 50 feet taller than current limits in neighborhoods with contextual zoning. Your voice was heard and it has made a difference. Thanks to all of you who attended the public scoping session and wrote to City Planning, there are significant alterations to the plan. Click here to see City Planning letter.
In R8B districts – Maintain the current maximum height of 75 feet that exists today (the proposal previously identified an increase to 85 feet).
In R7A districts – Allow a basic maximum height of 85 feet (a 5 foot increase, instead of the 15 foot increase previously proposed), and 105 feet for buildings providing affordable senior housing or inclusionary housing. With this change, only buildings that provide affordable housing would be permitted additional stories.
In R6B districts – Allow a maximum height of 55 feet for all buildings (a maximum of 65 feet was previously proposed for affordable senior housing or inclusionary housing).
But there are still neighborhoods where height limits will be increased up to 50 feet. And there is still no guarantee of the “affordability” or the “quality” in the proposal’s title. City Planning will begin presentations to Community Boards that request the meetings over the next two months. The formal review process for the Community Boards, Borough Presidents, and City Council will begin in the fall.
This rezoning plan will affect neighborhoods across the City. If you live in a neighborhood that has contextual zoning, request that your Community Board receive a briefing this spring so you can learn what the changes will mean for your block. We will follow the informational meetings, testify at the public hearings, and send you alerts.
MARCH 26
Residents and Elected Officials Object to Massive Rezoning Plan
Public testimony was overwhelmingly against a far-reaching rezoning proposal to allow taller buildings in neighborhoods throughout the City, when the City Planning Department held an initial hearing last Wednesday, March 25. The proposal was criticized as a giveaway to developers and an assault on community character, which fails to recognize the damaging impact it could have on human-scaled neighborhoods.
The zoning amendment titled, “Zoning for Quality and Affordability,” would permit new buildings to be 5 to 50 feet taller than currently allowed in contextual zoning districts. Despite the title, developers would also have the right to build even taller market rate buildings under the plan.
Contextual zoning regulates the height, bulk and setback of new buildings to produce designs consistent with the existing neighborhood character. Much of Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn is covered by contextual zoning. There is also some overlap with historic districts.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer read testimony supported by every other elected official representing the borough: “We fear that in the rush to solve the problem of housing supply we are …leaving behind the principle of sound neighborhood planning,” she said. (Read Brewer’s letter to City Planning here)
Conservancy testimony highlighted the likely impact on City-designated historic districts: “We are concerned that, if passed, the proposal will put undue pressure on the Landmarks Commission to approve additions and new construction in historic districts that are out of scale with surrounding buildings. This would negate the protections of the district designation and add pressure to slow down further district designation.” (Read Conservancy testimony here)
Some 200 people attended the City Planning session, despite little public explanation of the proposal by City Planning and scant media attention. The proposal is being fast-tracked and could be scheduled for review by Community Boards during the summer, when many residents are away. In contrast, it could often take years for a neighborhood to achieve contextual zoning, which was specifically tailored to each area. The proposal is a “one size fits all” approach. City Planning also has not produced maps which could allow residents to see if and how the rezoning would affect them.
TAKE ACTION: City Planning is accepting written testimony on the rezoning until April 6.
Send your questions or concerns to
Email:
AHOUSING@planning.nyc.gov
Or send letters to:
Robert Dobruskin
Director, Environmental Assessment and Review Division
NYC Department of City Planning
22 Reade Street, 4E
New York, NY 10007
___________________________________________________
March 25, 2015
Fast-Tracked Zoning Proposal Would Raise Building Heights Throughout the City
The Conservancy testified before the Department of City Planning on a draft rezoning proposal to allow taller buildings in contextual zoning districts which cover wide areas of the City.
Contextual zoning regulates the height and bulk of new buildings, their setback from the street line and their width along street frontage to produce buildings consistent with the existing neighborhood character.
Contextual districts cover the majority of the Upper East and West Sides of Manhattan, portions of Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side and much of brownstone Brooklyn. Residents demanded the height limits contextual districts afford to protect the scale of their neighborhoods. It could often take years for the City to respond and create a contextual district. Each district was tailored block by block after careful study. This new proposal is being fast-tracked and could be approved in a few months. So far, there has been little media or public awareness of the sweeping changes that could result.
City Planning also needs to provide greater details…especially neighborhood specific maps and maps showing where historic and contextual districts overlap…so that residents can know if and how they will be affected.
The proposal would allow market rate housing of 5 to 15 feet higher than currently permitted. Affordable or senior housing could rise from 15 to 50 feet higher than currently permitted, depending on the scale of the district. While the proposal is titled “Zoning for Quality and Affordability,” there is no guarantee that either will be achieved.
Since some historic and contextual districts overlap, the proposal would make the Landmarks Preservation Commission the “bad cop” and increase pressure on the Commission to approve buildings out of scale with the district. It could also slow the designation of new historic districts and there are still many neighborhoods seeking designation.
The March 25 “scoping session” was the beginning of the public review process. The Conservancy will stay involved, keep you informed, and ask for your assistance at appropriate stages.
Read the full testimony here.
2015-05-18T20:25:13+00:002015-05-18T20:25:13+00:002014 Annual Reporthttp://www.nylandmarks.org/publications/annual_report/2014_annual_report/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/publications/annual_report/2014_annual_report/
Click the “Download Annual Report” link below to open/download.
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2015-05-05T16:00:39+00:002015-05-05T16:00:39+00:00The 25th Lucy G. Moses Preservation Awardshttp://www.nylandmarks.org/events/details/the_25th_lucy_g._moses_preservation_awards/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/events/details/the_25th_lucy_g._moses_preservation_awards/
April 30, 2015
The Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph, Brooklyn
An Evening of Preservation Celebration at the 25th Moses Awards
More than 500 people gathered at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph in Brooklyn to applaud an impressive list of Moses Award winners from across the City.
The Lucy G. Moses Awards are the Conservancy’s highest honors for outstanding preservation and this year’s awards ranged from a major theatre and church restoration to saving a former East Harlem school from demolition.
The Preservation Leadership Award went to journalist and architectural historian Christopher Gray.
CLICK HERE for Event Photos
Thank you, to the Henry and Lucy Moses Fund, Inc. for making the award event possible.
More Information on the Honorees
CHRISTOPHER GRAY
Christopher Gray has been researching and writing about New York City’s buildings for 40 years. He is best known for the “Streetscapes” column, which ran in the New York Times from 1987 to 2014. The weekly column revealed hidden stories behind buildings many New Yorkers thought they knew, and enlightened readers on buildings they might have overlooked. With masterful writing and engaging stories, Gray thrilled architecture buffs while educating the public about the beautiful and eccentric buildings that fill New York’s streets. He is also the founder of the Office for Metropolitan History, which investigates the history of New York City buildings. The firm focuses on archival study and maintains a collection of 40,000 4×5 film negatives, 18,000 photographs, and 8,000 architectural drawings, many of which date back to the late 19th century.
901 BROADWAY
The first tenant of 901 Broadway, an 1870 commercial building near Union Square was Lord and Taylor. When the store moved in 1914, the picturesque French Second Empire property was used for manufacturing and retail at the ground floor. After years of deterioration, this project has restored the decorative cast iron and the slate roof. The signature pavilion at the corner of 20th Street and Broadway now welcomes visitors to Brooks Brothers on the lower floors, and mixed-use residential and office space on the upper levels.
1000 DEAN AND BERG’N
A group of investors, led by the founder of the popular Brooklyn architecture blog Brownstoner.com, acquired and rehabilitated two abandoned Crown Heights buildings and adapted them as 1000 Dean and Berg’n. They now serve as a center of Brooklyn’s creative community. Once a Studebaker service station and adjacent garage that fill much of a block, they now house office and studio space, as well as a food hall. The industrial features of the facades and open interiors remain, juxtaposed with contemporary design elements.
THE CO-CATHEDRAL OF ST. JOSEPH
The Brooklyn Diocese elevated the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph, just blocks from the Barclays Center, to Co-Cathedral status in 2013. In anticipation of the rededication, the brick, granite, and terra cotta exterior was restored, with new slate roofs and restored stained glass windows. At the interior, much was originally unadorned, except for painting on the apse ceiling and walls. Those historic murals, along with decorative plaster and scagliola, mosaics, woodwork, and tarnished murals were conserved and restored. New painting based on the historic color palette and new murals, including one of the 12 American saints now adorn the interior.
CONRAD B. DUBERSTEIN U.S. BANKRUPTCY COURTHOUSE
The granite and terra cotta façade of the former Brooklyn Post Office, now the Conrad B. Duberstein U.S. Bankruptcy Courthouse has been restored in a masterful effort. The massive Romanesque Revival structure had suffered water infiltration and deterioration for many years. Every aspect of work considered several options that measured investment, maintenance, and sustainability. The final scope included restoring or replacing 75,000 square feet of the granite and terra cotta facades, 15,800 pieces of terra cotta, 25,000 square feet of slate roof, sheet metal flashing and gutters, 1,200 wood windows, and installation of a substantial bird deterrent system to protect this icon of civic architecture in the heart of downtown Brooklyn.
EL BARRIO’S ARTSPACE PS 109
The Conservancy worked with community advocates to save PS 109, an East Harlem school designed by CBJ Snyder, when the City planned to demolish it in the late 1990s, getting it listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The 1898 Collegiate Gothic building had suffered from years of neglect and deterioration when Minneapolis-based Artspace teamed with the local El Barrio Operation Fightback to invest $52 million, restore the exterior and rehabilitate and adapt the interior for use as affordable housing and studio space for local artists in the rechristened El Barrio’s Artspace PS 109.
GRACE CHURCH, BROOKLYN HEIGHTS
Both the interior and exterior of Grace Episcopal Church (Brooklyn Heights), a mid-19th century Richard Upjohn church have been restored, to stunning effect. The removal of layers of brown overpaint on the wood-and-plaster interior revealed a dazzling polychrome paint scheme, with a magnificent blue-and-gold starburst pattern at the ceiling. Previously, it had only been seen in black and white photographs. A new copper roof and repairs to the brownstone will protect the sanctuary. The project also improved electrical, plumbing, lighting, hvac, and heating systems at this landmark church.
KERWIN RESIDENCE
The Kerwin Residence on the Upper West Side is an 1886 row house, designed by Rafael Gustavino, Sr. It is one of a row that was all painted red and white, but when the paint started peeling, the owners were surprised to see an entirely different palette emerge. They did not act immediately, but in 2012, after consultation with architects and Guastavino scholars, undertook a plan to restore the façade, which features natural red brick and terra cotta with red mortar, buff-colored brick, light-green sandstone with matching mortar, light-green painted sheet metal, and a dark brownstone stoop. They no longer match the neighbors, but are much closed to history.
KINGS THEATRE
The most exuberant restoration of the year is the Kings Theatre, one of five former “Wonder Theaters” the Loew’s Corporation built in the late 1920s. The Kings, closed in 1977 and long deteriorated, was the focus of a $90 million renewal effort funded by public and private sources. Following historic research and materials analysis, a color scheme sympathetic to the original was established, with new painted plaster surfaces, gilded ornament, new wood work, textiles, and metal fixtures. All new interior systems will allow for theatrical and musical performances.
THE PLAYERS
Years of deterioration had led to precarious conditions at The Players, the home of the Players Club on Gramercy Park. The Stanford White-designed brownstone façade and portico were crumbling; wood windows, ironwork, and stained glass were also failing. New brownstone was sourced and carved; the stained glass carefully removed from the frames and repaired off-site; and the wood windows and cornice restored. Research revealed a decorative floral motif at the brownstone capitals and a historic paint scheme that had once been lost and were both re-established.
SCHOONER LETTIE G. HOWARD
Volunteers from the South Street Seaport Museum and students from the Harbor School, a maritime-themed public high school, came together to restore the Schooner Lettie G. Howard, one of the last still-sailing Fredonia-style fishing schooners in the country. They brought the 1893 ship to Maine for structural and hull repairs, and then completed restoration of the deck while the Lettie was docked in New York Harbor. Now she is certified for sailing and for service as a sailing school vessel, where every student aboard is a crewmember.
SCULPTURECENTER
A new addition and connecting courtyard both enlarge and enhance the Long Island City home of SculptureCenter. The original 1908 building, once a trolley repair shop, had been lightly renovated when the Center moved in, in 2001. This project increased space by 50%, allowing for many missing museum functions, such as a reception area and bookshop, as well as addition gallery space. New Cor-Ten steel doors on the original gallery match the exterior of the addition and reinforce the building’s industrial heritage.
TAVERN ON THE GREEN
After the well-known Tavern on the Green restaurant closed, the City decided to re-invent the venue, removing decades of inappropriate additions, and restoring the picturesque building. The Victorian Gothic pavilions were designed by Jacob Wrey Mould in 1871 to serve as a sheepfold and caretaker’s cottage. Conversion to restaurant use and over 20,000 square feet in additions radically altered the space. This renovation reduced the size in half, peeling away ungainly additions to reveal beautiful red brick facades, restoring damaged polychrome slate roofs, and replacing oversized window openings with more historically appropriate fenestration. The Tavern is once again the jewel of Central Park.
2015-05-01T15:58:52+00:002015-05-01T15:58:52+00:00State Tax Credit Program Really Works!http://www.nylandmarks.org/programs_services/project/state_tax_credit_program_really_works/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/programs_services/project/state_tax_credit_program_really_works/
State Income Tax Credits for Restoration Work are available in two programs enacted in 2010 to foster investment in historic commercial and owner-occupied residential properties.
Conservancy staff regularly take advantage of the Homeowner program on behalf of owners who obtain loans from the New York City Historic Properties Fund, the Conservancy’s revolving loan fund.
The Homeowner program provides a state income tax credit to property owners for 20% of qualifying rehabilitation costs, up to a credit value of $50,000, for restoration work on historic residential buildings. Cooperative apartment buildings are also eligible, as the income tax credits flow through to shareholders.
There is a three-part application process: Part 1 confirms a project’s eligibility, Part 2 provides a more detailed description of the project work and its cost, and Part 3 requests certification of the completed work. The program was scheduled to end in 2014 and was renewed until 2019.
As a free service of the Historic Properties Fund to its borrowers, Conservancy staff prepare and submit applications to the State for Fund qualifying projects, i.e. properties that are located within the “distressed” census tracts that qualify for the credit. These census tracts, whose households are at or below the State’s median income level, are often in historic districts such as Crown Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Jackson Heights.
Fund staff completed Homeowner Tax Credit applications for two projects that yielded their owners $30,326 and $33,404, respectively, in state income tax credits for 2014 (nice rebates for the restoration work). The previous three finished applications were for smaller projects and produced $4,739, $10,546, and $12,771, respectively, for their owners. In sum, five owners have received total credits of $91,286 on investments amounting to $480,124 of eligible restoration costs, for an aggregate return of 19%.
Eight to ten more applications are on the horizon for 2015, with the prospect of about $2.5 million in rehabilitation costs and $300,000 in state tax credits for their owners.
For more information on the New York State Rehabilitation Tax Credit Program, visit http://www.nysparks.com/shpo/tax-credit-programs/
2015-04-30T14:18:58+00:002015-04-30T14:18:58+00:00Conservancy Awards $240,000 in 23 Grants for Sacred Siteshttp://www.nylandmarks.org/programs_services/project/conservancy_awards_over_240000_in_23_grants_for_sacred_sites/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/programs_services/project/conservancy_awards_over_240000_in_23_grants_for_sacred_sites/
April 2015
On April 17th, the Conservancy’s Sacred Sites Committee met and pledged over $240,000 in 23 grants to historic religious institutions throughout New York State, from the Lower East Side to Buffalo. These included one Sacred Sites Challenge grant totaling $30,000, to help fund $340,000 of masonry and window restoration at the south elevation of the “Little Church Around the Corner,” a Gothic Revival landmark on East 29th Street dating from 1849, and home to the Episcopal Actors’ Guild. The Conservancy awarded a record-setting four Jewish Heritage Fund challenge grants totaling $125,000, including $50,000 to Congregation Ramath Orah, a Classical Revival structure in Morningside Heights, towards an ambitious, $390,000 roof restoration project.
Ramath Orah was originally constructed in 1921-22 as the West Side Unitarian Church, and then repurposed as a synagogue in 1945 by refugees escaping the Nazi occupation of Luxembourg. Jewish Heritage grants of $25,000 each were awarded to the 1847, early Renaissance Revival Community Synagogue in the East Village to fund structural repairs, to the 1923, Moorish Revival Young Israel of Flatbush in Brooklyn to fund bronze door replacement, and to the 1889, Moorish Revival, individually designated landmark Park East Synagogue, on the Upper East Side, to fund roof replacement.
The Conservancy pledged an additional 18 Sacred Sites grants totaling $75,000, which will help fund 10x that amount, or $750,000 in repair and restoration projects including masonry, stained glass and slate roof restoration. The eighteen grants also included a $1,500 grant to fund the consulting services of a preservation architect at Smithfield Presbyterian Church, a handsome, highly intact, 1847 temple-fronted Greek Revival church in Dutchess County. Smithfield Presbyterian is currently fundraising for the comprehensive, $325,000 restoration of its structurally compromised, monumental wooden portico. The Conservancy’s initial planning grant will strengthen Smithfield’s application for a Conservancy challenge grant this June. The Conservancy awarded grants to two Long Island churches, $6,000 to the 1892, Queen Anne style St. Luke’s in Seacliff for a $75,000 project to install new protective glazing, and $4,000 to St. John’s Episcopal Church in Huntington, towards $30,000 tower masonry restoration. Other matching grants included $5,000 to Main Street Baptist Church in Oneonta, a Romanesque Revival church constructed in 1889, to replace its 1992 asphalt shingle roof with a new slate roof, a $150,000 project, and $4,000 to Albany Friends Meeting, housed in an 1897 Victorian Mansion, to complete the final $40,000 phase of its slate roof restoration. Baker Memorial United Methodist Church in East Aurora, a Collegiate Gothic church constructed in 1926, was awarded $6,000 for restoration of masonry entrance steps and deteriorated stone chimneys.
2015-04-29T15:15:54+00:002015-04-29T15:15:54+00:00Conservancy President Featured at Landmark Lecture Serieshttp://www.nylandmarks.org/events/details/landmark_lecture_series_-_general_society_of_mechanics_tradesman/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/events/details/landmark_lecture_series_-_general_society_of_mechanics_tradesman/
April 2015
Conservancy President Peg Breen warned of serious threats to preservation, even as the City celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Landmarks Law. Her remarks came in an April 15 speech at the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen Library.
She cited a citywide plan that would allow taller and bulkier buildings in contextual districts across the City. Contextual districts protect neighborhood character by regulating the height and bulk of new buildings. Residents often worked for years to gain these protections. Contextual districts often overlap with historic districts, she added. The proposal would put added pressure on the Landmarks Commission to approve buildings they normally wouldn’t.
Another threat is the proposed upzoning of Vanderbilt Avenue, across from Grand Central Terminal. Breen noted that a landmark quality Warren and Wetmore building at the corner of 42nd Street is already being demolished for a building that may rise higher than the Chrysler Building. She added that three other landmark quality buildings on the Avenue could be targeted for development if the upzoning is approved. These are the Yale Club, Roosevelt Hotel and 52 Vanderbilt.
“Do we want a giant wall of buildings across from the Terminal?” she asked
Watch the lecture below, thanks to the General Society.
Breen said the Conservancy is also concerned that development proposals at the South Street Seaport could threaten the oldest buildings in the historic district—-the landmarked, 1830 buildings of Schermerhorn Row. The Seaport Museum occupies several of these buildings and the proposal would put affordable housing in others.
“We’re not against affordable housing in older buildings,” she said, “historic and contextual districts across the City contain affordable housing. But we think that converting these non-fireproof commercial buildings would be very expensive and destroy the original material that has survived centuries.” She added that the proposed developer, the Howard Hughes Corporation, plans additional buildings outside the Seaport District, where affordable units would make more sense.
Breen said preservationists working with Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer had offered what they considered a practical way for the City Landmarks Preservation Commission to deal with almost 100 buildings LPC tried to eliminate from landmarks consideration.
“We all believe these buildings deserve a hearing and a vote,” she said.
Finally, Breen expressed concern about proposed changes to the Four Seasons restaurant that would remove original material from the landmarked space.
“The Four Seasons is considered one of the loveliest interior landmarks in the country,” she said. “And the proposal would erode architect Philip Johnson’s carefully detailed masterpiece.”
Breen said individuals demanded the Landmarks Law fifty years ago. Now it is time for today’s residents to protect the economic and quality of life benefits the Landmarks Law has provided.
Click here to see photos of the 1892 General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen building including the General Society Library and the John M. Mossman Lock Museum.
____________________________________________________________________________________
The next lecture is on May 20 at 6.30pm. Architectural historian and author, Anne Walker of Peter Pennoyer Architects will discuss “New York Transformed: The Architecture of Cross & Cross.“
at The General Society of Mechanics & Tradesmen
20 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036
The lecture starts at 6:30 pm, reception to follow.
Advance registration is suggested.
$15 General admission; $10 For Landmarks Conservancy Members, General Society, USA-829, and Senior Citizens; $5 Students.
To register please contact the General Society at: 212.840.1840 or email: karin.taylor@generalsociety.org
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
2015-04-24T17:20:26+00:002015-04-24T17:20:26+00:00The Destruction of Landmark P.S. 31http://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/preservation_issues/the_destruction_of_landmark_p.s._31/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/preservation_issues/the_destruction_of_landmark_p.s._31/
April 2015
A TALE OF TWO SCHOOLS – ONE SET FOR DEMOLITION
The City is finally completing the destruction of a landmarked Bronx school after leaving it to decay for years. P.S. 31, a beloved, top performing school designed by C.B.J. Snyder, built in 1897-99, was dubbed the “Castle on the HiIl,” due to its Collegiate Gothic beauty and prominent location on the Grand Concourse. Now it is being razed for new development.
If this wasn’t a City property, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) would have sued the owner for “demolition by neglect” years ago. The LPC did express disgust at the landmark’s deterioration when the Department of Buildings applied last year to demolish it as structurally unsound. But the City can neglect its own landmark properties with impunity. The Bloomberg Administration ignored years of community protest that the building be put back into use as a school or adaptively reused.
This loss is a disgrace.
The Conservancy worked with community leaders when the school was first emptied in the late 1990s after a repair project was botched by a City-selected contractor who did not have experience restoring historic buildings. Generations of Bronx residents went to P.S. 31, which featured a lovely mosaic entrance lobby and Tiffany stained glass in the auditorium. At the time of its closure, it was an academically superior school with a dedicated and dynamic principal.
Mayor Giuliani eventually bowed to community outrage and put funding to restore the school and add a rear addition into his final budget. The new Bloomberg Administration removed the funding.
The school is within a rezoned district designed to encourage neighborhood revitalization. Despite continuing community efforts, interest in having nearby Hostos Community College annex it, or thoughts of turning it into apartments and artist space – nothing materialized.
The loss is even more painful by the contrast with the newly restored P.S. 109 in East Harlem, another once-vacant Snyder school. The Conservancy also worked with this community to stop the City from tearing down P.S. 109 in the 1990’s. It was not a landmark, but was eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. It took years, but a Minneapolis-based nonprofit that creates artist housing completed restoration of P.S. 109 last year, in conjunction with a local community housing group. We honored their outstanding work with a Lucy Moses Preservation Award.
P.S. 31 is not just a loss for the Bronx. It is another loss for the whole City that was eminently avoidable. It is time the City is held to the same standards as private landmark property owners. If the City doesn’t maintain its landmarks, how can it hold others responsible?
The newly restored P.S. 109, and even the newly restored Pier A, another City landmark property, demonstrate that historic buildings can be adapted to modern needs even after standing vacant for many years. It’s a lesson the City must learn.
TAKE ACTION:
Click Here to EMAIL the MAYOR
Tell Mayor deBlasio that City-owned landmarks must be protected.
Click Here to EMAIL the LANDMARKS COMMISSION
Tell LPC Chair Meenakshi Srinavasan to enforce protections on City-owned landmarks.
2015-04-07T14:56:10+00:002015-04-07T14:56:10+00:00Crown Heights North Gets a Third Historic Districthttp://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/preservation_issues/conservancy_supports_designation_of_the_third_phase_for_crown_heights_north/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/preservation_issues/conservancy_supports_designation_of_the_third_phase_for_crown_heights_north/
UPDATE: March 25, 2015
More than three years after a public hearing, the Landmarks Commission has designated the Crown Heights III Historic District. The unanimous vote on March 24 celebrates and protects over 600 buildings. The Conservancy has attended many community meetings regarding this and earlier phases of the Crown Heights designations and testified in support at the January 2012 hearing. (Read our Testimony)
The buildings in the District, like those in the earlier phases, form a collection of impressive streetscapes. There are many intact row houses from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in styles typical of that period, such as Renaissance, Romanesque, and Colonial Revival, Neo-Grec, and Queen Anne. Among the institutions included is the Church of God in Christ, originally Shaari Zedek Synagogue. When the Conservancy performed its survey of former synagogue buildings of Brooklyn, the director of the Sacred Sites Program called it the finest Classical Revival former synagogue in the borough.
Along with the first two Crown Heights districts, this brings the total number of designated houses, apartment buildings, and institutions in this historic section of Brooklyn to 1,752. In light of recent attacks on historic district designation and the City’s own plan to weaken contextual zoning, the Conservancy welcomes the LPC’s vote and hopes it will be one of many additional designations under this administration.
January 17, 2012 – NYLC Supports Designation of Crown Heights North Phase III Historic District
Read our testimony below.
STATEMENT OF THE NEW YORK LANDMARKS CONSERVANCY BEFORE THE N.Y.C. LANDMARKS PRESERVATION COMMISSION REGARDING THE PROPOSED DESIGNATION OF THE CROWN HEIGHTS NORTH PHASE III HISTORIC DISTRICT IN BROOKLYN
Good morning, Chair Tierney and Commissioners. I am Andrea Goldwyn, speaking on behalf of The New York Landmarks Conservancy.
The Conservancy strongly supports the designation of the third phase of the Crown Heights North Historic District. We are pleased to join with neighbors, public officials, preservationists, and the dedicated advocates of the Crown Heights North Association, in doing so.
This section of Crown Heights North is an impressive collection of buildings that forms attractive streetscapes and creates a vivid sense of place, deserving of the protection of the Landmarks Law. The late 19th and early 20th century row houses, apartments and institutions that comprise the District, many in the Renaissance Revival style, feature elaborate stonework, a mosaic of materials, and artful decorative elements. We are fortunate that many of the buildings are so little changed.
The Conservancy knows Crown Heights North first-hand. Our Historic Properties Fund has made many site visits and several loans to buildings in the larger National Register District. We’ve appeared at numerous community meetings. And when our Sacred Sites program surveyed the former synagogue buildings of Brooklyn the program director called The Church of God in Christ at Park and Kingston the finest such property in the borough.
We look forward to continuing to work with owners and residents in the District. And we would like to commend the Commission for recognizing the remarkable architecture found across Crown Heights North. Thank you for the opportunity to present The Landmarks Conservancy’s views.
2015-03-30T19:55:58+00:002015-03-30T19:55:58+00:00WPA Mural Remnants At Former Post Office Annexhttp://www.nylandmarks.org/programs_services/project/wpa_mural_remnants_at_former_post_office_annex/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/programs_services/project/wpa_mural_remnants_at_former_post_office_annex/
The Conservancy often gets asked to root out pieces of New York’s architectural history. The latest request brought us to the remnants of a large WPA mural by California artist Channing Peake in the former Farley Post Office Annex.
Mark Haefle of LA Magazine is writing an article on Peake. He asked if the Farley Annex mural still existed and, if so, could we please take photos. Peake (1910-1989) was a Cubist, Modernist and muralist. He studied with Diego Rivera in Mexico and afterwards attended the Art Students League in New York. There he met several prominent muralists including the Italian artist Federico (Rico) LeBrun, with whom he collaborated on the Farley Annex painting. The mural dates from 1936. It was originally planned as three separate panels. One depicting a Dust Bowl scene, one depicting the great river flood in Johnstown Pennsylvania, and another a harvest scene. Only the river flood scene was executed.
Technical Director Alex Herrera remembered the mural and took pictures yesterday, courtesy of the Moynihan Station Development Corporation. The mural is there…but in a rough shape. That is an interesting story in itself. It is testament to how difficult and technically challenging painting al fresco is. While many contemporary muralists painted their murals on canvas or directly on a dry wall, here the ancient al fresco technique was used wherein the artist sketches out the outlines of the image and then he or an assistant fills in the areas with tinted plaster. If done right, the pigments become a permanent part of the wall surface and the painting lasts for centuries, if done incorrectly, the paint layers starts to delaminate and flake off the wall. We understand from people familiar with the building that the paint began to fail just a few years after the mural was finished. At some point, the Post Office painted over the whole thing with grey paint. There were later attempts to remove the paint and expose the mural.
Herrera’s photos show the exposed under drawing of various figures, as well as patches of paint and mural scattered across the wall. It decorates the lobby of the annex inside the 33rd Street entrance between Eighth and Ninth Avenues. Now it resembles New York’s version of Pompeii.
There are no firm plans for the annex but Peake’s mural remains an intriguing piece of history that deserves to be kept, even in its current condition.
2015-03-27T17:52:22+00:002015-03-27T17:52:22+00:00Professional Circle Member Hosts High School Studentshttp://www.nylandmarks.org/programs_services/project/professional_circle_member_hosts_high_school_students/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/programs_services/project/professional_circle_member_hosts_high_school_students/
March 26, 2015
Students considering careers in preservation technology delved into the mysterious world of historic mortar during a morning field visit to one of the Conservancy’s Professional Circle members.
In our continuing affiliation with Bronx International High School, which is housed in the landmark Morris High School (C.B.J. Snyder, 1900-1904) a group of students visited the offices of Integrated Conservation Resources & Integrated Conservation Contractors (ICR/ICC). The students attended a lecture followed by hands-on work with mortars using performance tests and chemical analysis to determine their components.
The lecture, given by Director of Scientific Research Norman Weiss, began with an overview of historic masonry construction and the often-overlooked component of a masonry wall, the mortar. He showed slides of different kinds of damage commonly found on masonry walls and explained their causes and possible remedies. He also spoke briefly about the process of paint analysis and its role in historic preservation projects.
The morning was meant to expose the students to the profession of historic preservation and the various career paths in the building conservation and restoration fields.
After the lecture, the students went to ICR’s excellent lab to meet Associate Conservator Jennifer Schork. She demonstrated how to test for various components in mortar. She also explained why it is crucial to understand as much as possible about their composition when specifying repairs or performing restoration of historic masonry.
Eighteen students and three teachers participated. The students enjoyed the experience of visiting a professional office and learning a huge amount in a short time about what professionals in the field of conservation do and how they do it. This was the second group of students from Bronx International to visit ICR.
The Conservancy would like to thank Glenn Boornazian, principal conservator and president of ICR/ICC. We will continue to plan field trips utilizing the expertise of our Professional Circle members who work in various fields.
Boornazian explained his willingness to host the students this way:
“We are very happy to give back what we can to people who might find a passion in what we do.”
2015-03-27T17:21:09+00:002015-03-27T17:21:09+00:00Conservancy Questions Fast-Tracked Zoning Proposalhttp://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/our_public_testimony/conservancy_questions_fast-tracked_zoning_proposal/
http://www.nylandmarks.org/advocacy/our_public_testimony/conservancy_questions_fast-tracked_zoning_proposal/
March 25, 2015
2015-03-24T17:00:25+00:002015-03-24T17:00:25+00:00